Over a week has passed since India's heart-breaking defeat at Lord's against England but a part of everyone's thoughts are still focused on what happened eight days ago in London. India lost by 22 runs despite a valiant effort, as the ball, off the bat of Mohammed Siraj, trickled onto the stumps. The fourth chapter of the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy is about to unfold at the Old Trafford in Manchester on Wednesday.
The fact that India raised their total to 172 after falling down at 112/8 is a testament to the tenacity of their lower order, comprising Ravindra Jadeja, Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj. At one point, Jadeja held up one end while stitching important partnerships with Nitish Reddy (35), Jasprit Bumrah (30), and Siraj (23).
Jadeja eventually returned unbeaten at 61 off 181 deliveries, but his approach became a talking point. Jadeja gave his tail-end partners the fourth and fifth balls of the over after carefully rotating the strike, although some, like Ravi Shastri, thought he should have attacked more.
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During commentary, Shastri was outspoken about it, urging Jadeja to go for his shots when the field was up, particularly against Shoaib Bashir and Joe Root. Jadeja nevertheless chose the safer path, which Shastri believes could have been avoided.
"I thought the time was before lunch, when Nitish Reddy and Jadeja were batting. One of the two should have gone for it. Because the field was up. The ball was a little harder. Once it got soft, you knew there would be one delivery with your name written on it. At some stage, I thought they could have taken more chances, and brought that deficit down to about 40, and then play the way they did," Shastri said on The Overlap Podcast.
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Jadeja's knock was compared to England captain Ben Stokes' once-in-a-lifetime innings against Australia at Headingley in the 2019 Ashes. Stokes went into beast mode and hammered the Australian bowlers on his way to scoring 135 not out, adding 101 runs with the last three wickets to lead England to victory. Shastri noted that although Jadeja is not as good at hitting the ball as Stokes, he could have won more matches for India if he had had more confidence in his ability to bat.
"If Jadeja has even 40 percent of the belief of Stokes, he will win you more matches. Because there is no doubt about his talent. It’s just that he has to go and take charge. If he believes he can take charge, he can do it. He’s got three triple-hundreds in First-Class cricket. It took him a long time. Three only. And it took him ages to realise that he has batting potential," added the former India head coach.
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