{"id":18003,"date":"2025-07-24T07:39:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-24T07:39:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/18003\/"},"modified":"2025-07-24T07:39:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-24T07:39:10","slug":"ind-vs-eng-2025-bits-and-pieces-cricketers-wont-win-you-tests-navjot-singh-sidhu-questions-shardul-thakurs-selection-for-4th-test-cricket-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/18003\/","title":{"rendered":"IND vs ENG 2025: ‘Bits-and-pieces cricketers won\u2019t win you Tests’ – Navjot Singh Sidhu questions Shardul Thakur\u2019s selection for 4th Test | Cricket News"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"IND NEW DELHI: Former India cricketer Navjot Singh Sidhu<\/a> has questioned the Indian team management\u2019s decision to field Shardul Thakur<\/a> in the playing XI for the fourth Test against England at Old Trafford, taking a sharp dig at the \u201cbits-and-pieces\u201d approach in Test cricket.Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!<\/a>Following Nitish Kumar Reddy\u2019s injury, India roped in Thakur, but Sidhu remained unconvinced. Speaking on his YouTube channel, the former opener said: \u201cEven if Shardul makes a fifty, at that number eight position, bits-and-pieces cricketers do well in one-day cricket, but in Test cricket, you always need specialists. If you could bring Shardul the bowler at number eight, then I would agree this is the right selection.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Sidhu argued that India has been using Thakur more for batting depth than for bowling impact.\u201cYou do not bowl him enough and then in order to increase the batting you compromise with your bowling. Bits-and-pieces cricketers, I don’t think will ever win you games abroad,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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He added that even someone of Ravindra Jadeja<\/a>\u2019s quality had struggled to take wickets in the earlier Tests despite favourable conditions.\u201cEven Jadeja could not pick wickets in the first two Tests with the rough. Batting, fielding, as an all-rounder, par excellence,\u201d he said, praising Jadeja\u2019s overall value but stressing the need for wicket-taking bowlers.Sidhu doubled down on his criticism by questioning the purpose of having a batting all-rounder at No. 8.\u201cIf seven can’t do it, eight also won’t. I have been repeating this point time and again. I feel this is again a compromise, and I feel it will not go in favour of India,\u201d he asserted.<\/p>\n

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Reflecting on Day 1, where India ended strongly at 264\/4, Sidhu admitted India dominated.\u201cThe first day will go in India\u2019s name. They have dominated 70 percent of the series but are still 2-1 down. This is the lack of experience \u2014 and you won\u2019t find experience in a mall or market,\u201d he remarked.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW DELHI: Former India cricketer Navjot Singh Sidhu has questioned the Indian team management\u2019s decision to field Shardul…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18004,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,19327,740,19324,19329,19328,19325,19326,13606,13607,85,1211],"class_list":["post-18003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bits-and-pieces-cricketers","tag-cricket","tag-india-vs-england-2025","tag-indian-cricket-team","tag-indian-team-management","tag-navjot-singh-sidhu","tag-old-trafford-4th-test","tag-ravindra-jadeja","tag-shardul-thakur","tag-sports","tag-test-cricket"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18003"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18003\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}