India vs Australia: “Technique has always been there” – Sanjay Manjrekar all praise for Ravindra Jadeja
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Ravindra Jadeja came up with an important knock for India on Day 2 of the second Test against Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Coming in to bat when the score was on 173/5 in the second session, the southpaw saw off the bowlers till tea and then stitched together a crucial partnership in excess of 100 moving to a score of 40* himself, along with India’s stand-in skipper Ajinkya Rahane. Such was the duo’s resistance that the Australian bowlers went wicketless in the third session – the first session in the Test series that did not see a wicket.
Jadeja has been going from strength to strength as an all-rounder in the Test format over the course of the last four years. The difference between his batting average and bowling average is higher than 20 since 2016 which is incredibly remarkable considering that the numbers for Ben Stokes who has the second highest difference is only 14 and only four other all-rounders have the difference above 0. (Stokes, Shakib Al-Hasan, Jason Holder and Vernon Philander)
‘Something has changed in the last 4 years’ – Manjrekar
Former Indian batsman Sanjay Manjrekar is known to be a vocal critic of Ravindra Jadeja. A controversy erupted in 2019 when the cricketer-turned commentator called him a ‘bits and pieces’ cricketer which Jadeja didn’t approve of. The all-rounder retorted, asking Manjrekar to stop his ‘verbal diarrhea’. Since then, Manjrekar seems to have softened his stance on his criticism of Jadeja and the same was evident today when he lauded the latter for his performance on Day 2.
Speaking about Jadeja’s progress, “Things changed after 2015 with Ravindra Jadeja — the batsman. It was also the time when Ashwin was batting before him, Ashwin had four Test hundreds and Jadeja had nothing. Jadeja was competing with Ashwin as the spinner in side. Ashwin’s batting dropped, Jadeja’s batting sort of skyrocketed. This guy always had a great first-class record and finally when he got his number, he felt ‘Wow, let me make most of it’,” he said on Sony Sports Network.
“The early part he was playing as Test all-rounder of sort, his bowling was fine but his batting for couple of years had become a bit of harakiri. Something changed in the last 4 years. He is getting behind the ball, leaving balls, even today against a quality bowling attack, he did not throw is wicket to avoid the fast bowlers before the second new ball was taken. He hung in there, so temperamentally, the technique has always been there, batting ability has always been there,” Manjrekar added.
Ravindra Jadeja and Ajinkya Rahane will resume proceedings on Day 3 with India 82 runs ahead and 5 wickets in the bag.
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Nevin Clinton
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