Ravindra Jadeja claimed four wickets during India’s Asia Cup clash against Bangladesh in Dubai on Friday.
His four wickets along with Jasprit Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s three wickets each helped India restrict the Bangla Tigers at 173 in the first innings of their Super Four match.
It was a pretty special moment for Jadeja because he was returning in the blue jersey after a long span of 14 months.
Jadeja last played an ODI during India’s tour of West Indies in 2017 in Kingston. However, prior to Friday’s game, Jadeja had gone wicket-less in his previous three ODIs, which were against West Indies (2) and Pakistan (1).
Bringing in perspective, Jadeja has picked an ODI wicket after as many as 15 months because his last wicket in the 50-over format for India was co-incidentally against Bangladesh during the ICC Champions Trophy in England.
Even better co-incidence was that the victim was again, Shakib-Al-Hasan.
On Friday, Jadeja overstepped in the first delivery which earned Bangladesh a free hit. Shakib smashed that for a four. He swept the next delivery to a deep square leg for a boundary again.
Citing Shakib’s intentions, Dhoni quickly went to stand-in-skipper Rohit Sharma and asked him to bring Shikhar Dhawan to square leg. Jadeja meanwhile stuck to his plan and forced Shakib to go for a sweep again that holed straight out to Dhawan, who didn’t’ have to move an inch.
That presence of mind from Dhoni continues to be a boon to Team India and has helped Rohit, in the absence of India’s regular captain Virat Kohli, massively.
A few minutes later, Dhoni showed off his famous lightning-quick glove work too behind the stumps. Bangladesh’s Mushfiqur Rahim, however, was saved by the width of the spike on his shoes. However, the wicketkeeper-batsman became Jadeja’s third wicket of the day when Rahim was caught by Chahal in the 18th over.
Earlier, India won the toss and opted to bowl. India made one change with Jadeja coming in for the injured Hardik Pandya.
For Bangladesh, Mushfiqur Rahim and Mustafizur Rahman returned in place of Mominul Haque and Abu Hider.
