Ranji Trophy Final: If the top order applied themselves we could have reached 350, says Shardul Thakur

Just like he came hard at the Vidarbha bowlers with the willow, Shardul Thakur minced no words at the Mumbai specialist batters after the first day’s play of the Ranji Trophy final.

“We are not happy with the total that we have put on board. Certainly with the way we started off, if the top order had applied themselves, had the right attitude and approach, we could have reached 350 or even 370 with five or six wickets down at the end of the day’s play,” Shardul said.

From 81 for no loss, Mumbai were reduced to 111 for six before Shardul came to the rescue with a 69-ball 75. During a 108-ball boundary-less drought before Shardul’s first four, Mumbai lost captain Ajinkya Rahane and Shreyas Iyer, among others.

READ: Shardul’s all-round heroics puts Mumbai ahead on Day 1

While Rahane has struggled right through the season with the willow, Shreyas has looked jittery ever since being excluded from the BCCI’s central contracts list. Shardul stood right behind the duo.

“It’s just a rough patch for them and in a rough patch, nothing goes your way,” Shardul said, adding that the duo has been “absolute matchwinners for Mumbai and India”. “It’s time to support them rather than criticizing them. They are extremely hard workers. They put in a lot of efforts towards their batting, a lot of thinking towards their batting. And they both of them are absolutely team players.”

While he was a tad disappointed at losing out on scoring a second hundred on a trot, Shardul acknowledged veteran coach Vilas Godbole for a batting tip offered ahead of the last week’s semifinal.

“The other day at BKC, I was speaking to Vilas Godbole sir and he just made out a couple of fine points at my batting. He said at times you tend to not flex your knees and try to hit the ball. He said the mindset should be to hit the ball but he said you should flex your knees and try to go towards the ball. I did it in the last two games and I am glad it has come off, he said.