Shardul Thakur Slams Commentators After Match-Winning Spell for LSG: 'Look at Your Own Stats First'

Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) fast bowler Shardul Thakur hit back at commentators for always finding faults in his performance. Shardul wasn’t picked by any team during the IPL 2025 mega auction last year, but LSG brought him in as a replacement after Mohsin Khan got injured and had to miss the tournament.

Shardul has been a key player for LSG, proving himself as the second-highest wicket-taker in the tournament and the best-performing fast bowler so far. He also bowled well in LSG’s six-wicket win against Gujarat Titans (GT) on Saturday, April 12, at the Ekana Stadium in Lucknow. He picked up the wickets of Sherfane Rutherford and Rahul Tewatia, ending with figures of 4 overs, 34 runs, and 2 wickets. After the match, he praised the Super Giants, saying they've handled pressure well and shown great teamwork throughout the season.

“I’ve always believed that, as a bowling unit, we’ve bowled well throughout the season. A lot of times in commentary, there’s criticism — they try to be hard on the bowlers. But you have to understand that cricket is moving in a certain direction where 200+ scores are becoming more common,” Shardul said in the post-match press conference.

“Credit to us that we’ve defended scores on two occasions when we batted first. We put up a good score, the pitch became better for batting, and even with drastic changes, we managed to defend — one game by 10 runs, one by 4 runs in Kolkata. So it was about holding our nerve till the end and believing in ourselves that we could win the game, provided we got an important wicket or bowled a key over," he added.

“And like you said, criticism will always be there — especially from commentators. It’s easy to sit in a studio and comment on someone’s bowling, but they don’t see the real picture out there on the ground. I’m sure they should look at their own stats before criticising anyone,” Shardul added.

Shardul has picked up 11 wickets in six matches, though he's been a bit expensive with an economy rate of 10.38. With their recent win against the Titans, LSG have moved into the top four on the points table. They now have 8 points and a net run rate of +0.162.

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