India made three changes in the final ODI against England.(Source: Reuters)
India lost the three-match ODI series 2-1 against England after facing a defeat in the third and deciding encounter at Leeds. Captain Virat Kohli made as many three changes in the playing XI from the last match as he included Dinesh Karthik, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Shardul Thakur. Thakur scalped a wicket after giving away 51 runs in his 10 overs. He admitted that he was nervous while playing the deciding game of the series.
“I played the last game in South Africa when we had won that series, and it wasn’t a necessary win for us. Playing this game, I was obviously a bit nervous because it is the series’ decider. When you are put under pressure, it’s a player’s responsibility to put forward your A-game. Sometimes the results go your way, sometimes they don’t,” Thakur said.
“When given opportunity in a one-off game my mindset is always to win the game for team when I step on the field. While playing this game, it was the same. Also when I am put in different teams, whether I am put in India-A or in domestic cricket, it is always the same,” he added.
Talking about the last match, Thakur said that it was unfortunate that India lost the game and the series but it would be a learning experience for the players keeping the World Cup 2019 in mind.
“It’s unfortunate that we lost this game. If you see overall we have done quite well. Keeping the World Cup in mind, which is next year, I think whatever batsmen have learnt from this T20 series and ODIs will be useful. How to bat in these conditions and for bowlers how to bowl in these conditions, I think it is very important. And going forward in this year’s cricket, whichever games we play, I think our team would execute what we want to do,” Thakur said.
India lost wickets in quick succession in the middle overs on Tuesday and Thakur said,“Shikhar and Virat were going really strong. If they had continued to bat till 40th over, maybe it would have been different and we could have put up 300. The wickets we lost in the middle overs made the difference.”
Kuldeep Yadav became a nightmare for the English batsman in the series but failed to get wickets in the deciding match. Mentioning about the same, Thakur appreciated the way Egland batsmen tackled Kuldeep’s bowling.
“England played really well against Kuldeep. If you saw the pitch, it had changed and got slower. They were playing spin easily on the backfoot and taking singles. So they played them very well,” he added.
Talking about the next year’s World Cup, the right-arm fast bowler insisted that England have a slight edge over other teams as they would be playing at home.
“They are obviously favourites because these are their home conditions. England know them better how to play cricket here, so other teams have a big challenge to play here. They have played well against Australia recently and now against us, so it will be difficult to beat them. But when we do come back (for the World Cup) we will be all geared up,” Thakur signed off.