What Made Shardul Thakur Ignore Other IPL Franchises And Join LSG?

Shardul Thakur went unsold in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 mega auction, but Mohsin Khan's season-ending injury got him into the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) set-up. And in the space of two games, Shardul has become LSG’s lead pacer and the Purple Cap holder in the IPL 2025.

The right-arm seamer claimed two wickets in the first game against Delhi Capitals (DC) and followed it up with a four-wicket haul against dangerous Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) on March 27 (Thursday).

The 33-year-old said he had inquiries from a couple of teams, but he joined the LSG unit because of mentor Zaheer Khan.

"In IPL, all these things keep happening. Unfortunately, few injuries here and there and there were a few inquiries if I could join the camp. But LSG approached me first, so I had to accept it. Zaheer Khan gave me a call,” said Shardul.

“You have good and bad days, you have to go through it in cricket. It's always good to be in the scoresheet but winning the game is important to me. I keep doing something or the other. I don't look much at the wickets column or runs column, I just want to put in match-winning performances.”

Shardul dismissed in-form batters Abhishek Sharma and Ishan Kishan in the space of two balls in his second over and later returned to get rid of Abhinav Manohar and Mohammed Shami. The right-armer finished with figures of 4/34 - his best in the IPL.

“They are coming hard at bowlers so why not go hard at them? The plan was to collectively go hard at them. We thought if we get early wickets, we'd do well because they have been going heavy from the start on flat pitches."