Shardul Thakur has spent the past eleven months hopping from one competition to the next and, unsurprisingly, his body is beginning to protest. Speaking at the end of West Zone’s Duleep Trophy semi-final in Bengaluru, the India seamer admitted that the modern calendar is squeezing players hard – and not always with sufficient consultation.
“A lot of times we are taken for granted and the management is not to the highest level,” he said, adding pointedly: “No one actually comes and asks us how our body feels after playing for so many months. But yes, I have been managing my body with physios, S&Cs, doing constant work.”
The schedule reads like a railway timetable. Since last October he has appeared in the Irani Trophy, a full Ranji season, Vijay Hazare and Syed Mushtaq Ali tournaments, the IPL with Lucknow Super Giants as an injury replacement, two four-day matches for India A against the England Lions and, most recently, the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy. That run equates to virtually a game every fortnight, most of them played at full throttle.
“And it’s about playing cricket. I’m not saying that you keep pulling yourself out from playing the games,” he explained. “But frequent breaks here and there are good for the body.”
Workload management has become a buzz-phrase in Indian cricket, especially after Jasprit Bumrah was rested for two of the five Tests in England earlier this year. Thakur, however, feels the on-field moment is no place for such calculations. “Once you enter the game, you can’t be talking about workload management because then the game situation also takes over,” he said. “When you go into the game, you’re expected to give your best. Whatever you have in your tank, you have to give it all.
“And I believe you shouldn’t be shying away from coming in and hitting the deck hard in the game, keep doing those efforts. Yes, when you go out of the ground and when you’re resting back home or you have those breaks in between the game, that’s where you try to manage your bodies and try to manage your load.”
Coaches often juggle nets and recovery time; Thakur prefers the decision to be case-by-case. “If you’re not having too much load in the game, then of course you can push yourself in the nets also. But if you’re having a big amount of load in the game, then you can take it a little bit easy in the nets.”
Beyond the physical grind, the 33-year-old is dipping a toe into leadership. West Zone’s defeat to Central Zone denied him a maiden first-class final as captain, yet the experience of overseeing Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shreyas Iyer and Ruturaj Gaikwad has whetted his appetite. With Ajinkya Rahane stepping down as Mumbai skipper, Thakur is interested in the vacancy. “Yes, I am open for the [Mumbai] captaincy,” he confirmed. “And of course, this was one of the steps where I get that experience of captaincy. It was just my first game and there were a lot of lea…”
The sentence trailed off as he considered what comes next, much like his own season – still unfinished, still demanding. For now, the seamer will keep bowling, keep lifting, and keep asking that simple question: how does the body feel?
