Legendary Indian batter Sunil Gavaskar lavished praise on all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja for his phenomenal show in the first Test against Australia.
On Friday, February 11, India trounced Australia by an inning and 132 runs to take a 1-0. Ashwin bagged his 31st fifer to rattle the Australian batting order as their innings folded up on 91 in 32.3 overs and the match was wrapped in three days.
Jadeja, who made his return to Test cricket after seven months, starred in the series opener with both bat and ball. He mustered figures of 5/47 to script an Australian batting collapse in the second session of Day 1.
The left-handed batter stitched a couple of key partnerships in the Indian innings to enhance their lead to 223 runs. He was involved in a 61-run stand with skipper Rohit Sharma and later paired with fellow all-rounder Axar Patel to frustrate the visitors with their alliance of 88 runs.
Jadeja scored 70 with the help of nine boundaries before he was cleaned up by Todd Murphy on the morning of Day 3.
“His wicket has to be earned by the opposition” – Sunil Gavaskar on Ravindra Jadeja
While analysing the Indian team’s incredible performance in the Nagpur Test on India Today, Gavaskar said Jadeja made a tremendous comeback in Test cricket.
Gavaskar said:
“Here is a man who has been performing regularly for India. He was out of the team due to injury, after which Axar Patel comes in and grabs his chance and that is such a fantastic thing for Indian cricket to have bench strength where players are ready.”
He added:
“Jadeja’s comeback has been tremendous. We didn’t see much about his fielding as he was at mid-off and there about. But as a bowler, he was on target from the outset. As a batter, he once again showed that he is going to score more and more runs for India. His wicket has to be earned by the opposition.”
India will play the second Test against Australia from February 17 to 21 at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi.
