Ravindra Jadeja’s knock a punctuation in extemporised Bazball era

Ravindra Jadeja’s slow progress through the nineties—it took him 27 balls to crawl to his ton— on Day One of the third England Test in Rajkot may have contributed to the confusion with Sarfaraz Khan, which led to the debutant’s runout. And while Jadeja’s celebratory sword-swishing, after reaching his fourth Test hundred in front of his home crowd, lacked its typical enthusiasm, the all-rounder proved his weight in gold again.

After losing three early wickets, he was asked to move up the order to No. 5, ahead of Sarfaraz. Given that he had little experience in that position in Tests, the fact that he held firm, sharing stands of 204 with captain Rohit Sharma and 77 with Sarfaraz, showed why he is one of the greatest allrounders of this generation.

Jadeja has an enviable record at the Niranjan Shah Stadium. In 17 first-class innings here, Jadeja has 1564 runs at an astonishing average of 142.18, with six hundreds and four fifties. He also has 60 wickets at an average of under 20, including a five-wicket haul and a 10-wicket match haul. By stumps on the first day, Jadeja’s Test average on the ground stood at 254, having been dismissed just once in four innings.

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Ben Stokes had Jadeja hemmed in with an unusual umbrella field to discourage his preferred on-side strokeplay. He continued to pick up singles and twos to avoid that rush of blood that could have implored him to hit a boundary every time dot-ball pressure reared its head. What made his unbeaten 110 even more special was that before the start of play, India’s top seven included five batters with a combined 29 caps, including two debutants and one playing his second Test.

Jadeja batted time and grafted for runs, reaching fifty off 97 balls. The innings provided punctuation to the extemporised lives of the Bazball era. “It is not that England are difficult to beat, but they play with a different style, and it takes some time to understand,” Jadeja had said before the Test match. “Once you understand their style and approach, we can plan accordingly.”

Jadeja’s plan fell in place on Thursday.