'As an all-rounder who bats in the lower order, my role becomes important'

Shardul Thakur has been a regular in Indian teams over the last couple of years without ever seeming so. In Test cricket, he has been picked as the fourth seamer in conditions that force the team's hand against fielding both Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin. Now in the lead up to the ODI World Cup, Thakur is a contender for the No.8 slot, balancing seam-bowling responsibilities with Hardik Pandya and offering useful batting and hitting depth lower down the order.

The 31-year-old played each game in the ODI series against West Indies in an assignment that India were happy to experiment. While opportunities to show off his batting skills might have been few, a haul of eight wickets at 11.62 from the three games offered further validation of his usefulness to the side. This included career-best figures of 4 for 37 in Tuesday's deciding clash in Trinidad.

Thakur admitted that it is a natural situation where a few players could have an eye on World Cup selection, he himself is grateful for the opportunities that have come his way and is not looking too far ahead. He is, however, aware of what he brings to the table. "As an all-rounder who bats in the lower order, my role also becomes important. We've seen, in longer chases or if you want to post a big total, you will look to accelerate and lose one or two wickets here and there. If the No. 8 and No.9 can contribute with someone who has batted deep, that role is really important," Thakur said after India's 200-run win.

"Whenever I get an opportunity, I just try and contribute towards the team's success. That's my thought process - whether it's in batting, bowling or fielding. I'm not the kind of player who plays for his place in the team. If I play with that thought, I don't think I'll be able to play,".

"Even if they [team management] don't pick me for the World Cup, it will be their call, I can't do much. It will be wrong of me to think that I need to play for my place, that I'll do my job and leave. I'll have to see what the match situation is, and what the requirement of the team is whether I get personal success or not. That is one thing I keep repeating - no matter what, I'll try to play for the team and make an impact."

"I missed just one series - the home series against Sri Lanka. Not sure why I wasn't picked for that. But I've been a part of all the one-day teams in the last two years. Whenever I get a chance to play, I remind myself that the team has confidence in me, and that's why I'm a part of it. Even in this series, I got an opportunity and I could pick eight wickets."

While Thakur featured in each game of the series, India couldn't give ace legspinner Yuzvendra Chahal a look in. Part of the reason is perhaps down to the realisation that the team can feature both Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav only by compromising on their batting depth. Thakur reckoned that not getting to play in one series wouldn't have much of an impact on Chahal's confidence.

"We have a strong bench strength. So there will be a lot of times when someone won't get to play a lot of matches or series. Yuzvendra Chahal is a very good player, he has performed for many years and proved himself. Now, whether to play him or not is the management's decision. The kind of player he is, whenever we play him, he will surely perform. We've seen that whenever he plays, he picks up a lot of wickets, whether it is one-day or T20. He always contributes to the team's success. So I don't think not playing one series would demoralize him. He has won several games in the past," Thakur said.

The seam bowler also heaped praise on the opening pair of Ishan Kishan and Shubman Gill, who put on a 143-run opening stand to set up India's massive total of 351, as well as seamer Mukesh Kumar, whose three early wickets broke the back of West Indies' chase.

"Even in the previous game, we as a group had decided to bat first and challenge ourselves to defend that score, although we didn't get the kind of result we wanted with our batting," Thakur said. "But in this game, we scored a lot of runs. There was a bit of assistance [for the bowlers] early on when we batted Ishan and Shubman batted really well and gave us a strong start. That's why we could post a big total.

"When we came on to bowl, we thought West Indies would give a strong reply but Mukesh bowled a fine spell with the new ball. The little help that was on offer from the pitch, he managed to extract that. He bowled in the right areas. The first three wickets were really important. Even after that, Kuldeep, I and the rest of the bowling unit contributed really well. Even though we picked three early wickets, our focus was to keep the pressure on even after that. That was the plan."