‘Thora jyada nahi bol diya’ – Fans react as Shardul Thakur confident of India chasing even 450+ in WTC final against Australia

Team India all-rounder Shardul Thakur believes that his side is still not out of the race for winning the ongoing World Test Championship final against Australia at the Oval, England. While giving an example of England’s big chase against India on the same ground, Thakur said that even 450 runs can be chased down at the venue.

Australia had control of the Test match most of the time as they posted a total of 469 runs in their first innings and bowled India out for 296 runs taking a big first-innings lead. The Aussies are currently on 123 runs for 3 in their second innings and are leading by 296 runs against India. Pat Cummins and his side will be looking to add few more runs in the total on Day 4 and give India a big target to chase.

“Cricket is a funny game. You can never say what is the right total, especially in an ICC final. One good partnership and you can chase down 450 or maybe more than that. We saw last year England chased [nearly] 400 here and they did not lose too many wickets. So that’s a positive sign for us,” Thakur said at the Press conference at the end of Day 3.

“Whatever they [Australia] put up on the board, it’s too early to make any predictions. We see a lot of times in Test cricket that the game changes within an hour. So yes, we [would] like to be optimistic tomorrow [Saturday] going on the field. And yeah, we’ll take it on from there,” he further added.

‘The more we stay on the pitch, the more the team will benefit’ – Thakur on his partnership with Ajinkya Rahane

Thakur also played a handful knock in the first innings when India were struggling after losing wickets at regular intervals. He put up a 109-run partnership with Ajinkya Rahane, who top-scored with 89 runs off 129 balls. Thakur scored his third consecutive fifty at the Oval as he got out after scoring 51 runs off 109 balls.

“He [Rahane] is a senior player, he has played a lot and he told me that even if I make a mistake, you come and talk to me and tell me on the spot because we are the last recognized pair. So, the more we stay on the pitch, the more the team will benefit,” Thakur said on his partnership with Rahane.