Ashwin shields Thakur against 'unfair' criticism after Headingley loss: 'Didn't give him a ball in the first 40 overs'

India all-rounder Shardul Thakur came under a lot of fire for his poor performance in the first Test against England at Headingley, where the 33-year-old was preferred over Nitish Kumar Reddy primarily due to his bowling skills.

Not only did Thakur make minimal contribution with bat, his dismissals for 1 and 4 coinciding with India’s batting collapses , he also collected two wickets – off successive deliveries on the final delivery – at an average of 44 and at an economy of 5.56.

There have been calls for Thakur to be benched in the second Test, which gets underway at Edgbaston in Birmingham on 2 July, not just by social media users but by several experts including former cricketer.

One ex-cricketer, however, came to Thakur’s defence nearly a week after India failed to defend a challenging target of 371 in Leeds .

Ashwin defends Thakur despite underwhelming show in Leeds

Spin legend Ravichandran Ashwin, who had abruptly called time on his international career midway during India’s previous Test assignment in Australia, questioned India skipper Shubman Gill and his lack of faith in Thakur in Leeds by not giving him the ball for 40 overs.

“You have taken Shardul Thakur in the team and didn’t give him a ball in the first 40 overs. And Joe Root was batting. And Shardul has a very decent match-up against Joe Root. So, if Shardul Thakur’s role is not less, then I genuinely rate Shardul as a cricketer,” the former off-spinner said on his YouTube channel.

“He has caught Ben Duckett and Harry Brook. He can make things happen. But he has to use them at the right time. But if this is going to be the way he is going to be used, I don’t think he is really making any sense. Because he has to be given the ball for him to make a difference. He didn’t bowl that much in the first 40 overs,” he added.

Ashwin thus felt Thakur was unfairly targeted by fans and experts in the aftermath of the defeat at Headingley, where India found themselves in a dominant position multiple times in the game.

“He didn’t bowl that much in the second innings either. Obviously, much more than the first innings. So, his role was very limited and I think it is very unfair to raise an argument on what he did,” Ashwin added.

Despite Ashwin’s support for the Mumbai all-rounder, captain Gill and head coach Gautam Gambhir are likely to bench Thakur in favour of Nitish Kumar Reddy, who had scored a memorable century against Australia in Melbourne.

And with star pacer Jasprit Bumrah likely to sit out of the second Test due to his workload management, the visitors might pick Akash Deep or give left-arm quick Arshdeep Singh his Test debut. There even are suggestions of India playing two spinners at Edgbaston, with left-arm wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav playing as a frontline tweaker alongside all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja .