'Before you ask you should check...': Shardul Thakur's stern reply to journalist

India take on South Africa in the second ODI in Ranchi and the mention of the city from a cricketing perspective inevitably would lead to MS Dhoni's name being taken. Dhoni retired from international cricket more than two years ago and plays the sport only when the Indian Premier League (IPL) comes around but his presence, or absence, will be keenly felt when India try to level the series in his hometown. Fast bowling all-rounder Shardul Thakur got a taste of that when asked in a press conference on the eve of the match if India's bowlers' consistency has been affected because they no longer receive Dhoni's guidance from behind the stumps. While Thakur admitted that the team will always miss someone as experienced as the 2011 World Cup-winning former captain, it is unfair to say that Indian bowlers are lacking consistency. "Everyone misses Dhoni because his vast experience matters a lot for everyone. He has played more than 300 ODIs, and more than 90 plus Test matches. It's very difficult to find someone as experienced as him. Our generation has played with him hence we do miss him," said Thakur. “As far as consistency goes, I think even bowlers playing for other teams tend to get hit for a lot of runs when they play in India. In the T20 series against South Africa, if you are going to criticise the bowlers you need to criticise their bowlers too. We won the series after all, their bowlers also got hit for a lot of runs.” Thakur said that India have rarely suffered one-sided defeats at home, and have lost very few games overall, regardless of how many runs their bowlers concede because on a day when the hosts' bowlers are expensive, the visiting side also receive a similar treatment. “I feel before you ask about someone's consistency, you should check what conditions they played in and how the pitch was. Many a times in an ODI game a team scores more than 350 runs and that is a situation where all bowlers are taken for runs. But are the opposition also able to score runs. Whatever matches happen here are never one sided. Regardless of how the pitch, we have always given a good fight. We may have lost one or two matches here and there but we have won maximum matches. So I feel there is a lot of consistency within this team,” said Thakur. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON

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