Legendary Indian batsman Sunil Gavaskar lavished praise on the multi-talented Ravindra Jadeja for his phenomenal performance in the first Test against Australia.
On Friday 11 February, India defeated Australia by one innings and 132 runs to take a 1-0. Ashwin bagged his 31st fife to shake up Australia’s batting order as his innings doubled at 91 in 32.3 overs and the match was over in three days.
Jadeja, who returned to Test Cricket after seven months, starred in the first match of the series with bat and ball. He mustered figures of 5/47 to pen an Australian batting collapse in the second session of Day 1.
The left-handed batsman sewed together a couple of key Indian innings partnerships to increase his lead to 223 runs. He was involved in a 61-race stand with skipper Rohit Sharma and then paired with his teammate Axar Patel to frustrate the visitors with their 88-race alliance.
Jadeja scored 70 with the help of nine boundaries before being cleaned up by Todd Murphy on the morning of Day 3.
“Your wicket has to be won by the opposition” – Sunil Gavaskar on Ravindra Jadeja
While discussing the incredible performance of the Indian team in the Nagpur Test on India Today, Gavaskar said that Jadeja made a tremendous comeback in Test cricket.
Gavaskar said:
“Here’s 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 takes his chance and that’s fantastic for Indian cricket to have bench strength where the players are ready. .”
added:
“Jadeja’s comeback has been tremendous. We didn’t see much about his fielding as he was up the middle and out there. But as a bowler, he was on target from the start. As a batsman, he once again showed that he is going to score more and more runs for India. The opposition have to earn their wicket.”
India will play the second Test against Australia from February 17-21 at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi.