Yuvraj Singh was back among the wickets and R Ashwin came back well in the first One-Day International after being hammered in the one-off Twenty20 International, but the one consistent performer amongst Indian spinners in the two games against Australia was Ravindra Jadeja.
As far as Jadeja was concerned, the secret to his miserly returns was the same it has always been – bowl wicket-to-wicket and don’t give the batsmen any room. “The wicket was slow and there wasn’t much turn; I was trying to bowl in good areas, trying not to bowl outside the off stump and keep it at the stumps,” he said. “If you bowl outside the stumps, you are likely to be hit because there is also the rule of having five players inside the circle.
The immediate past hasn’t been too good for Jadeja though. In the last tournament he played in – the Champions League Twenty20 2013 – he was extremely profligate with the ball, conceding runs at 10.61 per over and picking up only three wickets. So poor was Jadeja that MS Dhoni, who has backed him all the way over the years, didn’t usually let Jadeja complete his quota of overs. In fact, it was a poor tournament for Jadeja on the whole as he faced only 12 balls in five games and contributed just five runs – importantly, he was dismissed on each occasion.
Even though he hasn’t done much with the bat yet – 11 off 18 balls in the ODI after not getting a chance in the T20I – he sounded confident again. That’s a good start in what should be a tough series.
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