Ravindra Jadeja return breaks Bangladesh

BY ANAND VASU
The message Ravindra Jadeja sent, even if it had more dots than a telegram sent in morse code, was loud and clear: he should still be a part of India’s white-ball plans, not just in the immediate future, but through to the World Cup, which is nine months away.

Jadeja, back in the Indian One-Day International team for the first time since July 2017, ripped through the Bangladesh batting line-up with a spell of 10-0-29-4 that killed the game as a contest even before it had a chance to get competitive.


Jadeja, who only got recalled to the squad after Hardik Pandya was injured, has been out of the Indian think-tank’s scheme of things for some time now. The Virat Kohli and Ravi Shastri combine has put all its eggs in the wrist-spin basket, believing that the attacking nature of these bowlers posed more of a consistent threat than finger spinners. This has meant a temporary exile for Jadeja and R Ashwin.

Jadeja’s case is especially baffling because he has almost never been taken to the cleaners, is an outstanding fielder, is beginning to contribute more and more often with the bat and should be a natural fit in limited-overs cricket. What’s more, he runs through his overs in such quick time that it puts a different kind of pressure on batsmen.

On the day, Rohit Sharma, leading in Kohli’s absence, brought Jadeja on in the 10th over and Shakib-al-Hasan took an instant liking to him .A searing drive through cover and a hard sweep through square-leg brought consecutive boundaries. Mahendra Singh Dhoni, perhaps realising that a packed off side field was asking a bit too much of Jadeja, returning to this format after a break, had a word with Rohit and Shikhar Dhawan was moved to square-leg. Shakib, unable to resist temptation slapped the next ball straight to Dhawan and walked off.

In his second over, Jadeja conceded two, bowling four dot balls. His third over had five dots. In Jadeja’s fifth over, there were five dots once more and one of those was a wicket, Mohammad Mithun trapped in front. Mushfiqur Rahim faced Jadeja’s sixth over, under pressure and four dot balls caused him to attempt a reversesweep off the last ball, finding the fielder at short fine leg.

We could go on and on and on, perhaps not as swiftly as accurately as Jadeja, but you get the picture. Building pressure with dot balls, rushing through his overs, and forcing mistakes. It did not hurt that Bangladesh’s batsmen, unable to get off strike, took illcalculated risks and paid the price.

In all, of Jadeja’s 60 legal deliveries, 42 were dot balls. And each time Bangladesh’s batsmen tried to break the shackles by having a dash, it cost them dear. Reduced to 65 for 5, it was only a late dash that took Bangladesh as far as 173.

The fact that Jadeja dismissed Shakib and Mushfiqur, the two most dangerous batsmen in the opposition only underscored the importance of his effort. It helped that Rohit had an excellent day as captain, rotating his bowlers judiciously and getting his field placements spot on for different batsmen. The fact that India’s fielding and catching was sharp, and that Yuzvendra Chahal rediscovered the drift that deserted him in the match against Pakistan also made it impossible for Bangladesh to take the attack to the opposition.

Jadeja was his typical modest self about his performance. “I didn’t play shorter format for a long time and I was not focusing much on my no-balls so my foot went over the line in the first over. I was disappointed after that.” After that first over, though, there was no further disappointment for Jadeja, or India.