Axar Patel and Ravindra Jadeja share a good laugh.© Twitter
Ravindra Jadeja’s comeback after a long injury layoff is getting better by the day. The left-arm spinner returned with career-best figures of 7/42 in the second Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy to lead Australia’s hammering by six wickets inside three days on Sunday to bring the hosts to a 2-0 Test series lead. Jadeja teamed up with fellow spinner Ravichandran Ashwin to dismiss Australia for 113 in a morning session when the tourists’ batting imploded, thanks to an overused sweep shot on a tricky New Delhi pitch.
Jadeja bowled 12.1 overs and took seven wickets in the second innings on Sunday. Ashwin bowled 16 overs and took three wickets. The duo’s dominance meant that the third Indian spinner Axar Patel bowled only one over. After the match ended, Axar had a fun chat with Jadeja regarding that.
“Sir, I am not getting the chance to bowl. You don’t want me to bowl or what? Is that the reason why you are bowling so well?” Axar Patel told Ravindra Jadeja in a video posted on bcci.tv, as the duo broke into laughter.
“If the wicket is like this in India, it feels good. A spinner’s role and responsibility increase. Their batting is such that they prefer sweep and reverse-sweep. So, I tried to bowl at the stumps. If they missed it, the deliveries which would stay low would hit the stumps. Luckily, that happened today. In five of the dismissals, we heard a good sound of the ball hitting the stumps.”
The hosts romped to their victory target of 115 in the second session to guarantee them the retention of the Border-Gavaskar trophy in the four-match series.
They have won their previous three series against Australia and are now close to securing a spot in the World Test Championship final.
With AFP inputs
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