Shardul Thakur’s recent contract with the Lucknow Super Giants may hurt the Indian Test cricket team in the English summer.
Despite going unsold in the IPL 2025 auction, Thakur was one of the frontrunners among the injury replacements over the course of the season. The offer came one day into the league, when the Lucknow Super Giants replaced Mohsin Khan with him for INR 2 crore. LSG will be the sixth IPL franchise for Thakur, who had debuted in the format in 2015.
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Thakur’s acceptance of the deal will result in him turning down the contract with Essex, whom he was expected to represent in their first seven games of the County Championship. Essex play their sixth game from May 16 and their seventh from May 23. LSG, on the other hand, play their last league match on May 18, and the IPL playoffs are on May 20, 21, 23, and 25.
This means that Thakur will miss the first six games for Essex. If the contract is still valid, he may play the seventh depending on how far LSG go in the tournament.
Denting his own comeback hopes
From 11 Test matches, Thakur has 31 wickets at 28.08. Among Indian seamers with 30 wickets, only Jasprit Bumrah (42) has a strike rate better than Thakur’s 47. A consistent presence in the XI in conditions that assisted seam, he played in the first Test of the two-match series in South Africa in 2023-24. However, he was dropped for the second Test (that India won), and was not considered for the 10 Tests at home that followed. The latter part was not surprising, as his only home Test – his debut – came way back in 2018-19. He has not played in Asia since.
However, when India toured Australia next, they left Thakur out of the squad. Nitish Kumar Reddy, nearly 12 years younger, was considered a like-for-like replacement. Thakur’s injury problems did not help. Despite more than exceeding expectations with the bat (298 runs at 37.25), Reddy bowled only 44 overs across five Tests. He was, at best, a batter who bowled, not the other way round.
Meanwhile, Thakur had recovered from injury to have an excellent home season in domestic cricket. From 10 games, he claimed 35 wickets at 23.11 to go with 543 runs at 38.78. India’s 1-3 defeat in Australia and Thakur’s form both strengthened his case for the five Tests in the summer of 2025, more so because he has eight wickets at 33.37 to go with 122 runs at 24.40 in England. Not phenomenal numbers, but they are a decent fit for the dual role of the fourth seamer and the No.8 batter.
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A stint with Essex in the same conditions would certainly have helped a case for Thakur, who has never played in the County Championship. It would also have assisted the Test side, whose lack of a fourth full-time seamer hurt them in at least two ways. One, their attack looked insipid once the new-ball bowlers were taken off. And two, an overbowled Bumrah picked up an injury and is yet to play cricket since then.
Thakur’s call-up will undoubtedly help him. There cannot be two opinions about the importance of the IPL contract for a someone whose Test recall, while probable, is not guaranteed. It will also help the Super Giants plug a hole until Mayank Yadav returns.
At the same time, he may end up conceding the advantage he had gained over the winter in the race to the fourth seamer’s slot. And if he does miss out, India may have to choose between using Reddy or a fast bowler who cannot bat at No.8. Will that hurt their cause? Only time can tell.
