Shardul Thakur

Shardul Thakur and his journey have been that of a typical underdog who has undergone all the hardships in life but has come up the ranks due to his perseverance and hard work.

Shardul Narendra Thakur is an Indian professional cricketer, born on 16 October 1991 in a town of Maharashtra named Palghar. His role in the team is as a bowler who bowls right-arm medium-fast and bats right-handed. He is a hit-the-deck bowler who can also swing the ball away from the right-handers. Currently, he is the lead pacer of Mumbai in domestic cricket and also a member of the Indian cricket team.

Shardul Thakur: Along the Years

Shardul Thakur Records

• Joint top-wicket taker (48) in Ranji Trophy 2014-15

• 2nd fastest half-century (31 balls) in Test cricket in England after Jonny Bairstow (30 balls)

• 3rd fastest half-century (31 balls) by an Indian in Test cricket after Rishabh Pant and Kapil Dev

• Best bowling figures (7/61) for an Indian bowler in an innings against South Africa in Test cricket

• Most wickets (21) for Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the 2021 IPL

Shardul Thakur Awards and Accolades

• Man of the Match in Nidahas Trophy match against hosts Sri Lanka for his career-best T20I figures (4/27)

Shardul Thakur Career

Shardul Thakur is an all-rounder. He has been in and out of the Indian team in his short international career so far. He is part of the CSK team in the 2024 IPL and is currently playing for the franchise.

Shardul Thakur Domestic Career

Shardul’s town was 87 km away from Mumbai and he had to catch early morning Mumbai-Local trains (notorious for being filled with people) to come here for practice. He caught people's eyes when he hit 6 sixes in 6 balls in school cricket.

In November 2012, he debuted in domestic cricket against Rajasthan. He could not make his debut memorable as he took only four wickets at an average of 82.0 in his first four matches. At the end of the season, Mumbai team management asked him to lose some kilos and as he was hardworking and passionate about his career, he came back fitter. In the next season, he picked up 27 wickets at 26.25.

In the Ranji season of 2014-15, he emerged like a boss and finished the season on joint-top with 48 wickets at an average of 20.81 in 10 fixtures. He also completed five five-wicket hauls in the same season.

His glorious performance gained him a place in the India A squad to play four-day fixtures against Australia A and South Africa A. Later, in the same year, he was embodied in the team of the Board President's XI to play a practice match against South Africa, wherein he claimed four wickets. He continued his mind-blowing performance in the 2015-16 season of Ranji Trophy. In the final of the tournament, he led Mumbai to win the title by taking 8 wickets.

Recently, Shardul Thakur was awarded the Player of the Match award for scoring his maiden first-class century (109 runs) and taking 4 wickets in the semi-finals of the 2023-24 Ranji Trophy. In the final of the tournament, his team (Mumbai) had lost 6 wickets for just 111 runs and was in deep trouble, then he stood up and scored a quick 75 runs in just 69 balls. It was a special innings as it ultimately helped Mumbai win their 42nd Ranji title.

Shardul Thakur IPL Career

Owning to his glittering performances in the domestic circuit, Thakur was snaffled up by Kings XI Punjab in the 2014 IPL auction for a base price of Rs 20 lakhs. The gutsy medium-pace bowler made his debut against Delhi Daredevils in the 2015 season and took one wicket in his stipulated quota of four overs.

When CSK and RR were suspended and a mega-auction happened, Thakur was snaffled up by Rising Pune Supergiants and played under the captaincy of MS Dhoni and Steven Smith. In January 2018, he was bought by the Chennai Super Kings in the auction and again went on to play under MS Dhoni.

Thakur played very few matches in the 2019 Indian Premier League for Chennai Super Kings. Though he played in the Final where he took 2 wickets against Mumbai Indians. Chennai however failed to win the IPL title in 2019 after Thakur got out LBW when 2 runs were needed of the final delivery.

Shardul was in exceptional form during the 2021 IPL. He took 21 wickets in the entire tournament and was also the leading wicket-taker for CSK in this edition of the IPL. His amazing contribution with the bowl helped CSK to lift their 4th IPL title.

Thakur was bought by the Delhi Capitals franchise for a whopping INR 10.75 crores ahead of the 2022 IPL edition. He performed decently in the entire tournament taking 15 wickets.

Shardul was traded to Kolkata Knight Riders before the start of the 2023 IPL. Here, he scored his first IPL half-century (68 runs in just 29 balls) against RCB and was also the Player of the Match.

Shardul made his comeback to CSK after the franchise bought his services for INR 4 crores during the 2024 IPL auction.

Shardul Thakur International Career

After his brilliant performance in the domestic circuit and IPL, Shardul Thakur got the chance to show his skills at the International level. He made his ODI debut against Sri Lanka in Colombo and T20I debut against South Africa in Centurion. Due to his consistent and decent performance in white-ball cricket, the Indian selectors gave him a chance in red-ball cricket as well. He made his Test debut against West Indies in Hyderabad.

Shardul Thakur ODI Career

After his consistently amazing performance in first-class cricket, he was called up for the Indian squad touring to West Indies but did not get a chance to play any game. Shardul made his One Day International (ODI) debut on 31 August 2017 against Sri Lanka Cricket. 

 Thakur was a prominent member of the Indian team that eventually emerged victorious in the 2018 and 2023 Asia Cups.

Shardul also got his name in India's 15-man squad for the 2023 ODI World Cup. Initially, at the start of the tournament, he was playing the role of a bowling all-rounder for his team. However, due to an injury to Hardik Pandya after a few matches, Mohammed Shami was included in his place to maintain the team combination. He has played 47 ODIs to date and taken 65 wickets.

Shardul Thakur Test Career

Thakur is relatively a green-horn in the international Test arena, having played only 11 matches in his career up until now. He first got his name in India's squad for the West Indies tour way back in 2016, but didn't get any chance to play. Then, he was named in India's Test squad in May 2018 for the one-off Test against Afghanistan but this time too he could not make the cut in the playing XI.

However a few months later, in October 2018, Thakur made his Test debut against the West Indies, making him the 294th player to represent Team India in Tests. Unfortunately, his debut ended after bowling just 10 deliveries due to suffering from a groin strain in his right leg.

Shardul, then, made his comeback in January 2021 against Australia after all of India's main players got injured. In the historic Gabba Test match, he played a marvelous knock of 67 runs and stitched a partnership of 123 runs with Washington Sundar when India lost its top six batters for only 186 runs in the 2nd innings of the match. He also took 7 wickets in the entire test match which eventually helped Team India to win the match and the series as well.

Because of his exceptional performance against Australia, he also got his name in India’s Test team for the 2021 England tour. He played the first match at Nottingham and took 4 wickets but was ruled out for the next two test matches due to an injury. He returned to the Indian side at the Oval and scored a quick half-century in just 31 balls (2nd fastest in Tests played in England). In India's 2nd innings, he scored 60 in 72 balls and also bagged 3 wickets in the entire Test match.

His career-best figures came against South Africa at the Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg in January 2022. Here, he took his maiden 5-wicket haul with figures 7/61 and 8/108 in the entire Test match. In June 2023, Shardul played his first-ever World Test Championship final. He scored a half-century and also bagged 2 wickets in that Test match.

Thakur since then has been on the fringes of the Test team as the current Indian pace attack is fully stacked. He has taken 31 wickets in his entire Test career so far (as of May 2024).

Shardul Thakur T20I Career

Shardul Thakur made his Twenty20 International (T20I) debut for India against South Africa on 21 February 2018. In March 2018, he was selected to play in the 2018 Nidahas Trophy. In a match against Sri Lanka, he took a career-best 4-27 to bring the game back to India's favor, winning the Man Of the Match award. He finished with 6 wickets from 5 matches at an average of 29.33.

 In October 2021, Shardul Thakur replaced Axar Patel in India’s squad for the 2021 T20I World Cup. He played only two games in the entire tournament as India failed to qualify for the semi-finals.

Shardul Thakur in his relatively short T20I career has played 25 matches and taken 33 wickets at an average of 23.39 (as of May 2024).

Shardul Thakur Family

Coming from humble beginnings, Shardul was born on 16 October 1991 in a town of Maharashtra named Palghar. His father's name is Narendra Thakur and his mother's name is Hansa Thakur.

Recently, in February 2023, Thakur got married to his longtime girlfriend ‘Mittali Parulkar' in typical Indian customs and traditions.

Shardul Thakur's Net Worth

As of 2024, Shardul Thakur has an estimated net worth of INR 50 crores, close to USD 6 million. He earned most of it through International matches, IPL matches, domestic circuits, brand endorsements, and ad shoots.

Shardul Thakur's House

Shardul Thakur has a farmhouse in his hometown Palghar, Maharashtra.

Shardul Thakur’s Cars

Shardul Thakur owns a Mercedes SUV (INR 2.23 crore) and a Mahindra Thar SUV (gifted by Anand Mahindra, chairman of the Mahindra group).