All-rounder Ravindra Jadeja once again rescued India from a tricky situation, scoring a resilient fifty on Day 4 of the third Test against Australia in Brisbane. Jadeja appeared calm and composed against Australia’s top-tier bowling attack, securing his third half-century in Test cricket on Australian soil.
After reaching his fifty in the second session on December 17, Jadeja celebrated with his signature sword gesture. He appeared to be thrilled at having repaid the team’s trust, for this was his first big innings of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
Former head coach Ravi Shastri, speaking on air, advised Jadeja to take care of his left wrist jokingly, as the all-rounder was expected to play a key role with the ball in the remaining matches of the series.
Jadeja had been left out of India’s XI for the first two Tests of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy with Washington Sundar and R Ashwin selected as the primary spinners in Perth and Adelaide.
However, Jadeja stepped up at 74 for 5 in Brisbane after Rohit Sharma had been dismissed early for 10. He added a crucial 67 runs to the board with KL Rahul who top-scored with 84 before being dismissed by a beautiful slip catch from Steve Smith.
Cheteshwar Pujara, speaking to Star Sports, said Jadeja improved considerably, especially his sweep shots. “That’s something that he has worked on.”. Look at that sweep shot. He doesn’t normally play sweeps that much. His batting has improved a lot in the last 3-5 years. He has been batting well across formats. Probably, he is one of the best batters of spin bowling. The way he has negotiated Nathan Lyon. He has got his bat in front of his pad. He has been decisive with his footwork,” Pujara said.
“You can bank on him as a batsman,” he said.
Jadeja added to his reputation as the dependable batting all-rounder who had scored 984 runs at an average of 30 in 22 Tests across the SENA countries (South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and England).
