The former Indian middle order batter, Sanjay Manjrekar, has pointed out a mistake of not bringing Ravindra Jadeja into the attack that the Test captain of the Blue Brigade, Rohit Sharma, made during the second of the two-match Test series against Bangladesh at the Green Park Stadium in Kanpur.
The home side came into the game on the back of their 280-run win at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. India made a decent start in the first hour, thanks to the wicket of Zakir Hasan, who edged the ball into the hands of the gully fielder, Yashasvi Jaiswal. Later, Akash Deep found the other opening batter, Shadman Islam, trapped before the stumps.
With two left-handers, Mominul Haque and visiting captain Najmul Hossain Shanto, into the side, Rohit decided to bring Ravichandran Ashwin into the attack, as the off-spinner will take the ball away from those respective batters. It’s always a sensible call, and most captains tend to do that.
Sanjay Manjrekar puts a record of Ravindra Jadeja from the 2016 series
But, the former Mumbai batter, Sanjay Manjrekar, feels that Ravindra Jadeja, despite being a left-arm spinner, could have been better against the left-arm batters in this format of the game. He also shared the record that the all-rounder had against the former England captain and a classic left-handed batter, Alastair Cook, during the 2016 home series.
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Ravindra Jadeja had dismissed Cook six times in eight innings of the series, besides being gone for only 75 runs. Overall, the veteran was dismissed seven times in the red-ball format of the game against the respective spinner at an average of around 30.
The Saurashtra bowler also enjoys a great record against the former Australian opening batter, David Warner, who was undone four times besides scoring 59 runs at an average of below 15.
Even the former South African captain, Dean Elgard, who is also a left-handed batter, has found it tough to bat against Ravindra Jadeja, having scored only 89 runs at an average of under 30, besides being dismissed thrice.
“Rohit needs to be shown this stat- JADEJA vs COOK, 2016 series: In 8 inns, got him out six times, conceded just 75 runs. Rohit tends to not bowl Jadeja early when there are lefthanders out there.” The former Indian batter advised in a post shared on his ‘X’ account (formerly known as Twitter).
Earlier, after winning the toss, the Indian captain decided to bowl first under overcast conditions on the black-soil pitch as he expected some help from the fast bowlers early on with the new ball. The management decided to delay the home Test for Kuldeep Yadav, retaining the same playing eleven for this Test match.
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Ravindra Jadeja, who failed to celebrate his respective century in Chennai, shared a 199-run stand with centurion Ashwin in the previous game and also finished on 299 wickets in the longest format of the game. When India went back to the dressing room due to bad light in the middle of the second session, he was yet to roll his arm in the game.
When India makes their trip to Australia for the five-match Test series in the Border Gavaskar Trophy 2024/25, Ravindra Jadeja is expected to be a vital member of the side and could end up being the only spinner of the team if the visitors see a good opportunity to use four fast bowlers in a game. Hence, his confidence with the ball will be crucial for the two-time runners-up of the World Test Championship (WTC) cycles.