'He was devastated' - Eric Simmons reveal how IPL 2019 setback changed Shardul Thakur

Shardul Thakur has literally been on a roll in the last one year or so. Having made a comeback in the Test team last year, the pacer or rather say the all-rounder has emerged as a vital cog of the side. He has also made the ball talk in the ongoing Johannesburg Test as well, scalping a career-best seven-wicket haul in South Africa’s first innings.

Notably, the likes of Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami couldn’t create such impact in the game. Owing to the same, cricket fraternity is stunned with Thakur’s stellar show in the rainbow nation. Besides his blitzes with the ball, Thakur also scored a vital 24-ball 28, helping his side post 266 runs in the third innings.

Shardul Thakur was devasted after loss in IPL 2019 final: Eric Simmons

Meanwhile, Eric Simmons, one of the commentators, revealed how the epic 2019 final where CSK lost to Mumbai by a run, changed Shardul Thakur as a person. “I have to tell the story of Shardul’s batting. It’s a lot to do with his character. He is in the same franchise as I am, with CSK,” Simmons said on air.

“Two years ago in the IPL final against Mumbai Indians, we needed one of the last ball to tie and two to win. He walked to the wicket, facing Lasith Malinga and he was out last ball of the match LBW. He was devastated to lose that match,” he added.

For the unversed, Simmons worked with CSK back then. He revealed that he Shardul spent time in a corner after that failure. “He was sitting in a corner for I don’t know how long! That’s his character. Nobody could tell him, nobody could console him… ‘listen it wasn’t your fault’. In fact, he bowled particularly well in that match. The point I am trying to make is what that match did to him. He resolved to go out and make sure ‘that will never happen to me again’,” Simmons asserted further.

“To become the batter that he has… the amount of work he puts in on his batting… even with all the calypso style shots we talk about, there’s a lot of orthodoxy in the way he goes about his batting. It says a lot about the character of the man that he rose from that position,” he added.