Shardul Thakur: Lord of LSG, master of comebacks, drops roaring reminder to Ajit Agarkar with IPL Purple Cap

Until five days back, Shardul Thakur didn’t officially have an IPL contract. True, he was netting with Lucknow Super Giants and was a shoo-in to replace one of their several Indian fast bowlers in the infirmary, but he wasn’t a part of the squad protocol-wise. And here we are, less than a week into IPL 2025, with the 33-year-old donning the Purple Cap.

It’s been an interesting last four months for the Mumbaikar who, perhaps to his great shock and consternation, went unsold at the mega auction in Jeddah in November. After all, by the time of the auction, he boasted 94 wickets in 95 matches and was a handy all-rounder worth a few muscular runs down the order. Most importantly, while he went for runs, he had the happy knack of picking up wickets; in the T20 format especially, wickets are like gold dust.

And yet, Thakur found no takers when the representatives of the ten franchises engaged in protracted bidding wars in Saudi Arabia. It must have been a bitter blow to be so singularly discarded, but the quasi-all-rounder wasn’t going to let the grass grow under his feet.

Therefore, he signed up with English county side Essex for the new season starting next month. He saw that as an extension of his red-ball stint with Mumbai in the Ranji Trophy. Until, during the knockout stage of the Ranji last month, he received a call from Zaheer Khan, LSG’s mentor, asking him to be prepared to join the franchise as an injury replacement.

It wasn’t until March 23 that Thakur formally became a part of IPL 2025, roped in to replace the injured Mohsin Khan at his base price of Rs. 2 crore. In a largely inexperienced India-centric bowling attack, Thakur was expected to lend guidance and leadership, and pick up a few wickets, if possible. Inside the first week of the tournament, he proudly flaunts the Purple Cap with six scalps from two matches, including a career-best four for 34 on Thursday night against the most feared batting unit of the competition.

Without a shadow of doubt, Sunrisers Hyderabad possess the maximum batting firepower. A few days back, they flayed Rajasthan Royals to the tune of 286 – just one behind their own record for the highest IPL team total. Their left-handed top three of Abhishek Sharma, Travis Head and Ishan Kishan are extraordinary ball-bashers without a negative bone in their body while in the middle order, Heinrich Klaasen is a ferocious aggressor.

Thakur most certainly must have seen the carnage SRH dumped on Maheesh Theekshana and Jofra Archer – whose none for 76 are the most expensive IPL figures ever – the other night. But if he was fazed, it didn’t show. Determined to blast them out before they blasted him out of the attack, Thakur attempted aggressive lines. He bowled up looking for swing with the new ball, then quickly pulled his length back and produced a well-directed bouncer that Abhishek could only smite to the deep backward square-leg fielder.

Didn’t we talk about his happy knack of picking up wickets? You can picture Kishan nodding in agreement, an offshoot of him being caught down the legside first ball, to an innocuous delivery. That’s what the Lord can do. Lord Shardul, that is.

Another of those catchy prefixes that are such a Chennai Super Kings specialty – Sir Jadeja, anyone? – has stuck like glue to Thakur, who relishes attention. Thursday night was all about attention. Two wickets in his second over, and two more during the night. The last of them taking him to 100 IPL sticks and giving him temporary possession of the Purple Cap. The Player of the Match award was a formality, an icing on the cake, a reaffirmation that this was Thakur’s night out at a venue that has been a nightmare for bowlers.

Even though he has been among the wickets, and runs, for his state in the Ranji Trophy, Thakur’s days as a Test cricketer are perhaps behind him – he hasn’t played a red-ball game for India since December 2023 – but he has set himself up as the classic example of never say never, so he might still fancy his chances of being on the flight to England for the five-Test series this summer. Realistically, though, it is domestic cricket, for Mumbai across formats in the months to come and franchise action for LSG -- whose optimistic lifeline has already fetched stunning results, over the next eight weeks – that should float his boat in the immediate future. But Thakur won’t settle for that. He will keep doing lord things, believing he still has what it takes to lord over Lord’s.