Ravindra Jadeja is not new to the big scores. Ask any of the three teams – Odisha (314), Gujarat (303*) and Railways (331) – about the Saurashtra all-rounder and they will only tell how mercilessly he has treated them during his three triple hundreds in Ranji Trophy matches.Jadeja has the distinction of being the only Indian to score three first-class triple centuries in his short career, joining legends like Don Bradman, Brian Lara, Bill Ponsford, Walter Hammond, WG Grace, Graeme Hick and Mike Hussey.

COMMERCIAL BREAK
SCROLL TO CONTINUE READING

Yet, the 28-year-old has never got enough opportunities with the willow at the Test level and has always been confined to the lower middle-order by the Indian team management.That's probably the reason why even after playing 22 Tests, Jadeja's place in the team is never secure as an all-rounder, let alone as a batsman. On Sunday, when Jadeja arrived at the crease with India struggling at 204/6, he was expected to spend some time in the middle along with his senior spin partner Ravichandran Ashwin to take the team's total closer to England's 283.

And he did just that, curbing his attacking instincts in order to leave a mark at the Test level as a batsman. The southpaw probably realised that it had been quite a while since his much-talked about 68 in the second innings at The Lord's in 2014, which helped the visitors win a historic Test.On Monday, Jadeja's gritty restraint continued till the moment he picket Chris Woakes for four fours in one over before charging down the pitch to try and launch leggie Adil Rashid over the ropes, only to be caught by Woakes at the deep.

But by that time, Jadeja had done his job, ensuring the hosts took a commanding lead. "The shot that I got out to is my pet shot. I can hit a six any time with that shot. I had the confidence, but the ball came rather slow off the wicket and that's why I didn't get the required impact. I am not disappointed that I got out to a shot like that," said Jadeja after the third day's play on Monday.In between his attack and defence, Jadeja performed a traditional sword dance on the field when he reached his half-century off 104 balls. It didn't matter to him that he had a bat to swirl around instead of the lighting sword."It's a traditional Rajput style. I can't bring a sword into the ground, so I have to make do with the bat," Jadeja said with a chuckle.It wasn't the first time that Jadeja had displayed his sword dance to cricket fans. The Lord's crowd in 2014 as well as the Kanpur crowd during the recent Test against New Zealand were also witness to it.Having a batting average of 43 in first class cricket, Jadeja is certain that if given more chances, his current Test average of 23.5 can easily go upwards."It's not that I consider myself as a batsman, I am a proper batsman. I've been scoring runs in first class cricket. Of course, this is my longest Test knock but I knew I can play and pace my knock. I was not in a hurry. I knew once I settle, I can accelerate after 50-60-70 balls," Jadeja said.

Terming the England bowling tactics as boring, the Saurashtra lad revealed how he chose to make it exciting by deciding to finally resort to some strokeplay."They were bowling boring lines. It was only outside the off stump, off stump, off stump and off stump. I was not running out of time. In fact, I had enough time but then I thought of disturbing the bowlers by hitting them from outside off stump. There were only two fielders on the leg side and I luckily got four boundaries in that over," said Jadeja.

JADEJA WITH BAT

Format Mat Inn Runs HS Avg SR 100/50Tests 22 35 682 68 23.51 64.82 0/2FC 71 107 4128 331 43.00 60.74 7/17

N ZONE

3

No. of half-centuries Ravindra Jadeja has notched up in Test cricket, with the 90 on Monday being his highest score so far