Shardul Thakur came out to bat for Mumbai Indians During his team’s match vs Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in an IPL 2026 match on Thursday.Interestingly, Shardul Thakur was not part of Mumbai’s starting XI and was not even an inspired player. Mumbai had already used opener Danish Malivar as their impact player in place of Allah Ghazanfar.In the thirteenth over of the second innings, Shardul Thakur came in to bat and was dismissed by Noor Ahmed. Hardik Pandya And Sheriff Rutherford on consecutive balls.
Why did Shardul come to bat?Shardul Thakur came in to bat as a replacement for Mitchell Santner, who was injured trying to take a catch in the first innings.Santner took one wicket and conceded 44 runs in his four overs before being injured.Mumbai Indians were at 95 for 7 at the time of writing.Earlier in the match, Sanju Samson scored his fifth IPL century. He crossed this milestone by hitting Krish Bhagat for a boundary on the last ball of the innings. It was his second century of the season, his second for Chennai Super Kings and fifth overall in the IPL.Samson remained unbeaten on 101 off 54 balls and helped Chennai Super Kings to 207 for 6. They stayed till the end while wickets kept falling at the other end.He hit 10 fours and six sixes in his innings.For Mumbai Indians, AM Ghazanfar and Ashwini Kumar took two wickets each, while Jasprit Bumrah took one wicket for 31 runs.
Poll
Should Shardul Thakur have been used as an impact player instead?
