Pacer Shardul Thakur drops his jersey number 10

Indian pacer Shardul Thakur has given up on his no. 10 jersey and has now made a smooth switch to 54. The 26-year old paceman was widely criticized for wearing a jersey numbered 10 during his debut match against Sri Lanka recently. In order to avoid further humiliation, the cricketer decided to go ahead with a different number on his back.

The number 10 is synonymous with legendary former Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar and therefore many cricket fans slammed the young Indian pacer for wearing the same digits. Thakur was slammed on social media and many threw virtual punches at him. The bowler had clarified that he was sporting no. 10 because of numerological reasons.

Promising youngster

Thakur has been picked for the 3-match ODI series against New Zealand. Even though he didn’t make it to the playing XI but he was seen sporting a different number on his back during the training sessions. Thakur has so far played just 2 ODIs for India and he is very much in the scheme of things. It is still not known whether the pacer was asked to change his jersey no. or he took the call all by himself.

The Maharashtra-born pacer has been impressive in the domestic circuit. Thakur has scalped 175 wickets from 51 First-class matches at an average of 28.30. He might well get a look in the remaining two games of the ongoing series against the Kiwis, after the 6-wicket defeat in the 1st ODI. Clearly, the paceman means his business here and he does not intend to get into the news for the wrong reasons. It will be interesting to see if his new number can bring good fortunes to the pacer as well as team India as they look to level the series in the next match. The world of Twitterati is yet to respond to the change.