Shardul Thakur’s Mumbai teammates tell a tale of how he always wanted to open the batting in Ranji Trophy. In fact, it was with the bat that Thakur first got noticed in Mumbai cricket after he plundered six sixes in an over of school cricket. 

Thakur has always rated himself as a batsman in domestic cricket and on Sunday he showcased his talent in Test cricket. Thakur (67) combined with debutant Washington Sundar (62) to add 123 runs for the seventh wicket to ensure India (336) trailed Australia (369) just by 33 runs.