Even as the Indian bowlers and fielders toiled hard in the field for almost two days, all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja often lifted the spirit of the team with his hilarious antics and gave the crowd some cheerful moments in Ahmedabad.
The Indian players and the crowd were left frustrated for the better part of the first two days in the ongoing 4th Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy at the Narendra Modi stadium as Australia batted for over 167.2 overs for their 490 runs.
Amid this, Ravindra Jadeja had a couple of lighter moments with the on-field umpires.
When R Ashwin slid a ball down the leg side of Cameron Green and after KS Bharat had whipped off the bails in a flash, Ravindra Jadeja, standing at the square leg position, near the leg-umpire, signaled the ‘TV’ gesture and then even gestured the ‘OUT’ sign with his finger. The crowd cheered this antic from Ravindra Jadeja, who acted as the leg-umpire by using the TV and OUT signals, even though KS Bharat knew that Green was inside the crease.
The video of this shenanigan from the southpaw went viral on social media and fans too had a good laugh at this, and so did Jadeja.
Check out the video of Ravindra Jadeja turning into the leg-umpire:
India players trying to become square leg umpire to get a wicket. Still can’t get Cam Green out @FoxCricket #cricket #INDvsAUS pic.twitter.com/uz7VrUYq9z
— Brad Mellington (@BradMellington) March 10, 2023
Meanwhile, Australia were bowled out for 490 after centuries from Usman Khawaja (180) and Cameron Green (114). For India, R Ashwin was their best bowler, by a distance from others, with figures of 6/91 in 47.2 overs, which is an economy rate of 1.9.
India have started their innings well. At lunch on Day 3, India are 129/1 with Gill at 65* and Pujara at 22*. India will need a big score in their first innings because chasing anything around or over 150 in the last innings with the pitch gradually breaking down will be really challenging.