Shardul can bowl even on flat decks: Jeff Thomson

[[JUGRAJ SINGH]]

During his playing days, Jeff Thomson often proved to be a nightmare for batsmen. He was constantly at them with his lethal pace and aggression. He always meant business. Off the field, Thomson is no different. There are no shades of grey. So when asked which Indian bowler impressed him in recent times, his reply was: "Other than Shardul (Thakur), I haven't seen any other bowler."

That settled... he went on to talk in detail about Thakur. "I have seen him bowl and he has been pretty impressive. He can bowl on flat pitches and take a lot of wickets and clean up teams. I am sure if he is picked in the playing XI in the West Indies, he will impress and do better than the others," he said. The Mumbai pacer, who has been in great form for the past two seasons in the Ranji Trophy, has been picked in the 17-man Indian team to the West Indies.

The Aussie great, who is in the city as head coach of the MCA-IDBI Federal Life Insurance Bowling Foundation, felt that this program has been instrumental in mobilising efforts to coach young talent in the country."I take great pride and honour in being part of the MCA* IDBI Federal Life Insurance Bowling Foundation, yet again. We have had a tremendous response from future fast bowlers of India in the previous sessions, and I'm en joying the ongoing training session with the fast bowling talent of this season," Thomson said."We found a bit more talent this year than last (in September), especially with younger kids 16 upwards which is pretty young for fast bowlers.

"I can feel the difference over the last one year. They are so much fitter and faster. These kids are rookies picked from poor areas, not gifted with money. You got to be a little crazy to become fast bowlers, need to dislike batsmen and should be prepared to do the hard work in these kinds of temperatures. We have not even touched the tip of the iceberg."