Indian skipper Virat Kohli and team management surprised everyone by sending their star all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja at no.5 after the early dismissals of Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, and Cheteshwar Pujara on the first day of the fourth Test match against England at The Oval. In no time, Jadeja’s promotion in the batting order became the talk of the town.
It happened in the 20th over when Test specialist Cheteshwar Pujara was dismissed after edging a James Anderson delivery to England keeper Jonny Bairstow. After his dismissal, everyone was waiting for the arrival of Indian vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane or keeper Rishabh Pant, but to everyone’s surprise, Ravindra Jadeja walked out to bat at no. 5.
With both Pant and Rahane looking woefully out of touch, the decision of sending Jadeja ahead of them looked brilliant, however, the decision didn’t pay dividends as Jadeja was dismissed on just 10 runs.
Meanwhile, former Indian cricketer turned commentator Sanjay Manjrekar was not at all impressed with the decision of sending Jadeja ahead of Rahane and Pant. He even went on to claim that the Indian cricket team is overestimating the capabilities of Ravindra Jadeja with the bat. He said:
“I think the T20 Way of thinking has come in. I think they overestimated the ability of Jadeja to play at No. 5. In these conditions, it was a disaster waiting for him.”
He added:
“I think Indian cricket is overestimating Jadeja’s batting ability in overseas conditions. In India, send him at No. 5, there is going to be no problem. In these conditions, we saw while he was out there when the ball was swinging, he didn’t look comfortable,”
Talking about the game, team India was bowled out for 191 runs, with the help of the fifties from Virat Kohli and Shardul Thakur. The Mumbai-based cricketer stole the show with the bat as he scored his half-century off only 31 balls, setting a record for the second-fastest 50 by an Indian cricketer. Later, England was successful in chasing the Indian total and they posted scores of 290 on the board in their first innings.
At the end of day 2, KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma played cautiously and remained unbeaten at Stumps on Day 2. The Indian side was at 43/0 after 16 overs and is currently trailing by 56 runs.
