Ravindra Jadeja’s return to international cricket after an injury forced layoff of five months with a five-wicket haul on the opening day of the series was a pre-cursor to what Australia have to endure throughout the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2023
In a video Bcci.tv posted on the eve of the Border-Gavaskar series opener in Nagpur, Ravindra Jadeja revisited his rehabilitation journey after a troubled knee kept him out of action since August 2022, and he talked about how it felt weird for him to play his first game after such a lengthy layoff – a Ranji Trophy fixture for Saurashtra against Tamil Nadu. Five months, he said, it has been since he felt the sun as he was training largely indoors.
But, after five months away from international cricket the once dissed as a mere bits and pieces player, claimed his 11th five-wicket haul on the opening day of the 1st Test at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Ground, Jamtha helping India bundle out Australia for 177.
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Demons in the pitch you ask? Well, for the crybabies, Jadeja did not even need to exploit the ‘the rough patch’ – hell, he didn’t even have to turn the ball to get the visitor’s best batter out.
Jadeja came on to bowl in the sixth over and he got turn right away – on a length on off to a right-hander. A couple of darts followed and that was that for his first over. Then came a spell of nine overs without a wicket.
But in those nine overs in tandem with Axar Patel, R Ashwin, Mohammad Shami and Mohammad Siraj – Jadeja looked the most lethal. While for obvious reasons off spinner Ashwin got the maximum purchase in terms of turn and bounce, the left orthodox gave that wow moments to the 10,000-strong Nagpur crowd more often.
After Siraj and Shami had scythed through David Warner and Usman Khawaja to leave the Aussies reeling at 2/2, Pat Cummins’ luck at the toss was nullified. Australia were on the back foot even before India could play their best hand.
Jadeja looked in absolute rhythm from the word go and occasionally got the ball to grip off track and spin past the batters. He challenged both the edges with some straightening after pitching and others zipping past. Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne played admirably to take Australia to lunch at 76/2, but it did seem the inevitable was only being delayed.
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And the inevitable happened.
After pushing Labhschagne on the backfoot with an array of quicker ones, Jadeja slowed one down. The No.1 Test batter saw his opportunity and made the move for the forward press but he was not close enough to negate the spin, and the ball whizzed past his outside edge and Labschagne dragged his back leg away from the crease in search of the delivery; Srikar Bharat, on debut, did the rest behind the stumps. A nifty stumping and Jadeja had his first. He pocketed his second next ball when left-hander Matt Renshaw was caught on the crease to length ball.
Australia were rocked once again.
It often becomes quite easy to forget the impact Jadeja has on the proceeding when bowling in India. He more than able replacement Axar Patel has more than filled Jadeja’s shoes in India while Ashwin, who claimed his 450th Test wicket today, continues to be a step or two ahead than everybody else.
Jadeja averages a decent 24.40 in Tests and in India it dips further to 20.14 in comparison to Ashwin’s 24.23 and 21.09. This not a ploy to compare the two, but to see how Jadeja stacks up against one of India’s genuine match winners.
And often because of Ashwin’s far superior guile, bags of tricks and variations, Jadeja’s laser accurate and often times simplest of bowling plans often gets unnoticed. But, similar to how Jadeja has transformed himself into batter of substance in the lower order with some gritty knocks in recent times, especially away from home, today’s spell was a timely reminder of how the 31-year-old is an impact player like none other in world cricket.
And mind you, none of his wickets, rather anyone’s wicket today, owned anything to the rough patches or the conspiracy theories of the doctored pitches.
In his this spell on the day, Jadeja put the breaker on Australia with a superb delivery. A length delivery with no change in his action or the ball rotation the ball pitched and Smith expected it to turn, but it just about straightened leaving Smith, playing outside the line, in no man’s land.
Australia had Ashwin in their minds, they even got an Ashwin lookalike to bowl at them in the nets. They must a looked at Axar as a threat – after all he averages 14.89 at home with the ball. Not to say they would not have been wary of the Jadeja threat, but even if they did they just could not do anything evening they wanted to. Australia did not fall to spin, but the fear of spin proved to be their downfall.
Ashwin did his reputation no harm with three to his name taking the tally between him and Jadeja against the Aussies in India to 107 wickets with each playing nine matches.
Harbhajan Singh and Anil Kumble – the two greats may have a few wickets more than Ashwin and Jadeja, but by the end of the series, signs are clear that two will come mighty close to their predecessors.
