India’s head coach Rahul Dravid heaps praise on Deepak Chahar and Shardul Thakur

India’s chief coach Rahul Dravid has reserved the highest respect for Deepak Chahar and Shardul Thakur in the wake of their best performances against South Africa. Shardul Thakur played 3 Tests and 2 ODIs against Proteas brought the best out of himself with all-round performances.

The bowling all-rounder delivered the goods with the ball in the Test series. However, as far as the ODI series is concerned, he did contribute to the team with the bat. Shardul Thakur took as many as 12 wickets for India in the recently-concluded three-match Test series.

Moreover, he registered his career-best bowling figures of 7/61 in the first innings of the second Test at The Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg. He drew plaudits for his extraordinary bowling spell. When all other bowlers struggled to outsmart the Proteas’ batters, Shardul stunned the Proteas with his bowling.

Rahul Dravid backs Indian duo Deepak Chahar and Shardul Thakur

Shardul Thakur scored his maiden ODI half-century in the first game against South Africa. Fans, former cricketers heaped praise on Thakur for his batting. He scored an unbeaten 50 off 43 balls including 5 fours and a six. Besides that, he also scored a valuable 40 off 38 balls including 3 fours and a six in the second ODI.

On the other hand, Deepak Chahar got an opportunity to play the third ODI at Cape Town. He chipped in with all-round performances. Chahar accounted for 2 dismissals while also scoring 54 off 34 balls. He struck 5 fours and 2 maximums.

Since Chahar and Thakur have performed well, Dravid said the duo will be gifted with more chances in the games to come. “Deepak Chahar has shown his batting ability whenever he got the opportunity – he has got the good ability as well, I have seen him for India A matches as well – it’s good to have players like Deepak, Thakur in the side – we would like to give them more games,” Dravid said at the press conference.