Shardul Thakur initially went unsold at the IPL 2025 auction and was all set to play for Essex in the County Championship, featuring in seven games through April and May. However, just before the IPL kicked off, his plans took another turn when Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) came calling, needing an injury replacement. Thakur didn’t just join the squad—he made an instant impact, slotting straight into the playing XI. Now, two games in, he’s the tournament's leading wicket-taker, with six scalps at an impressive average of 8.83.

"See, I feel all these things keep happening in the cricket," Thakur told the host broadcaster at the innings break after helping LSG keep Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) to 190 for 9." It was just one bad day in the auction, I didn't get picked by any of the franchises. But unfortunately a few injuries here and there, there were a few inquiries whether I could join the camp. But LSG was the one who approached me first, so I had to give them preference and even closely working with Zaheer Khan, he gave me a call. And it was always on the cards, I had to accept it.

"And like I always say, skills are always there, talent is always there. It's just about the form and bad days, you have to go through it in cricket."

Shardul was brought in as a replacement for left-arm pacer Mohsin Khan, who suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in his right knee on December 31 during the Vijay Hazare Trophy. 

Thakur came away with career-best IPL figures of 4 for 34 on Thursday and along the way, he reached 100 IPL wickets. "It's always good to be in the score sheet, but yeah, winning the game is important for me," Thakur said. "I'll keep doing something or the other, that's my attitude. I don't much look at the wicket column or the runs column, but to create an impact in the game, to create match-winning performances, that's what I look at."

Thakur made early breakthroughs by dismissing the dangerous Abhishek Sharma and in form Ishan Kishan. He then went on to dismiss Abhinav Manohar and Mohammad Shami as well.

"I think they [SRH batters] are coming hard at bowlers and why not bowlers go hard at them? So the talk was around what the plan should be and we collectively said let's go hard at them, let's take our chances," Thakur said. "If we get early wickets then we are in the game because they have been scoring heavily on this ground on flat pitches and probably we had to take our chances and today I think initially it fell in our pockets."