Shardul Thakur had to wait for his turn. His India dream wouldn't have been realised had he not remained patient and resilient. The 29-year-old finished at the top of the wicket-charts in the recently concluded ODI and T20I series against England.
Even though India won the ODI series 2-1, there were enough noteworthy performances from both camps. This series against England in particular will be remembered for the batting prowess shown by both teams. Cricketnext takes a look at some staggering numbers in the series:
Sam Curran scored an unbeaten 95 and was adjudged the Player of the Match.
While Shikhar Dhawan wasn't the preffered choice in the T20Is, he did leave a mark once again in the ODIs, as he scored two fifties in the three-match series against England. With Rohit Sharma, he has formed an excellent opening partnership and is just 23 runs away from 6000 runs in ODIs.
Shardul Thakur picked up 4 for 67 and had made an important 30 off 21 with the bat.
Mumbai Indians kick off their title defense against Royal Challengers Bangalore on April 9.
Over the last few months, since Team India made a comeback in international arena, after a forced Covid-19 break, they have been in sublime form. After beating Australia in the Tests and T20Is, they also beat England in all three formats, with the seniors and youngsters shining alike. That has impressed former Australia skipper Ian Chappell, and he feels that Team India can dominate world cricket, like West Indies and Australia did in yesteryears.
Since the end of last year's IPL, India have played eight Test matches, six ODIs and six T20 Internationals.
Bhuvneshwar was the pick of the bowlers in the series with 6 wickets at an economy below 5 in a high scoring series.
Suresh Raina is perhaps India's first T20 star, who impressed one and all with his impressive strokeplay and lightning-quick fielding, in the international arena, as well as the IPL. In the cash-rich league he plies his trade for the Chennai Super Kings, and has been with them right since the inception of the league. Although he did not feature in the IPL last year, the most successful batsman for CSK would be gunning to go.
In a series dominated by batsmen, it was Bhuvneshwar Kumar who emerged as the difference between the two sides and the highest impact bowler of the series. Kumar delivered a series-defining performance in the decider and was also the highest impact player of the series for his phenomenally restrictive bowling.
Even though Team India won the final ODI against England and won the series 2-1, the fielding by the team was below par. The team kept on missing catches, that put extra pressure on the bowlers. As a result of that Sam Curran almost too England home with an unbeaten 95. There were as many as four drop catches, two alone by Hardik Pandya, who is one of the safest fielders.
Never before in India's cricket history have so many debutants made such an impact in such a short period of time and collectively produced one great performance after the other in tough situations and circumstances.
Team India coach Ravi Shastri took to social medial, after his team beat England 2-1 in the ODI series, in Pune. The match went down to the wire, as India won by just seven runs, defending 330. At one stage England were reeling at 168-6, but Sam Curran, almost single-handedly took the visitors over the finish line.
In a nerve-wrecking series decider, Curran, coming out to bat at number 8, led a fine England fightback after they were seven wickets down for 200 to revive the visitors' hopes of chasing down 330 but eventually fell short by seven runs.
It was on March 29, 2004, when Virender Sehwag became the first Indian batsman to score a triple century in the longest format of the game. He achieved the feat against Pakistan at Multan.
Virat Kohli is still India's one of the most agile fielders, and that was on full display during the third ODI between India and England. The skipper pulled off a one-handed stunner to dismiss Adil Rashid. In the 40th over Shardul Thakur bowled one full delivery to the batsman, and the latter hit the ball in the air towards extra cover.
During India's series win against England, both teams managed to create a record together -- most sixes hit in a three-match series, with 63 maximums. The previous record was held by New Zealand and Sri Lanka, which they created in 2019, while third on the list is again, India and England who hit 56 sixes in a series back in 2017.Bhuvneshwar Kumar returned with a match-winning spell and a series-defining performance in the decider against England in Pune, In a series dominated by batsmen, his accurate, measured and phenomenally restrictive bowling was the difference between the two sides.
Virat Kohli is an absolute beast in the Indian Premier League. Actually, he's a beast in every form and level of cricket when it comes to batting.After losing the second ODI rather convincingly, India would like to make amends in the third and win the series 2-1. But it would not be an easy task for Team India. With the series locked at 1-1, the visitors are the best ODI team in the world and haven't lost a bilateral ODI series for the last seven years. Before the series versus India, England had beaten Australia at their own backyard.
Former Pakistan fast bowler has made some shocking revelations about compatriot Waqar Younis. Asif in an interview said that he Younis used to cheat with the ball in order to get reverse swing and did not know how to bowl with the new ball. He went on to say that Waqar learnt to bowl with the new ball in the later stages of his career.
The Australian cricket team, which was led by Michael Clarke, won their fifth World Cup defeating New Zealand by 7 wickets in the finals at the MCG in 2015