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India veteran all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja, who produced fine knocks from his bat in both innings of the Lord’s Test of the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy, is getting slammed for not showing attacking intent in the second innings of the game. The likes of former India skippers Anil Kumble, Sourav Ganguly, and Sunil Gavaskar feel that the 36-year-old could’ve done attacking batting to take India home. Jadeja’s former India teammate Ravichandran Ashwin also possesses the opinion that the left-handed players should’ve come heavily on spinner Shoaib Bashir rather than defending the deliveries. Amidst these opinions, Jadeja has received support from Cheteshwar Pujara.
Pujara isn’t content with Jadeja attracting criticism despite putting an audacious batting effort in the second innings of the game. "He couldn't have scored faster on that track. I felt that it was because the ball was soft, and the pitch was on the slower side. I guess, Jadeja would have thought that the tailenders were batting well and the team was getting close to the total. And once they were a little closer he would have taken his chances. I thought he was batting well. It was very difficult to score runs on that pitch,” said Pujara as quoted by Indian Express.
Cheteshwar Pujara praised Ravindra Jadeja’s improvement as a batter
Pujara also went on to hail Jadeja’s notable improvement as a Test batter. The top-order batter emphasised on Jadeja’s batting practice in nets on match days. "For the last five years, he has improved, especially abroad. He has been working hard. If you notice, even on the match day, he does his net practice. He has shown improvement when playing pace," added Pujara.
In the current red-ball series against England, Jadeja has done a superb job as a batter. He has amassed 327 runs with four half-centuries at an average of 109.00, in six innings of three matches.
