Ravindra Jadeja staged a dramatic comeback to white-ball cricket with a spell of four for 24 that powered India to a comfortable seven-wicket win over Bangladesh at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Friday.
The left-arm spinner, playing in blue clothes for the first time since July 2017, was accurate, penetrative and put serious pressure on the batsmen. “Definitely this comeback is memorable, as in the earlier comebacks there hadn’t been this much a gap,” said Jadeja. “It has been 480 days since I played, so I will always remember this.”
While Jadeja got the count wrong in terms of number of days since his last ODI, he didn’t put a foot wrong with his bowling; 42 of his 60 legal deliveries were dot balls.
Jadeja made a comeback to the Indian team in the England Test series, and picked up seven wickets in addition to scoring a valuable unbeaten 86 under pressure at the Oval. “Actually I got confidence from the last game against England. I didn’t know I was selected for the one-day side for this tournament because I was playing the Vijay Hazare Trophy in Delhi,” said Jadeja.
“I didn’t know what was going on. Only the day before did I get a call from a selector, saying ‘you may have to go to Dubai.’ It was very good news.”
Big presence
Jadeja, whose joy at being back in the mix in ODIs was visible, credited Mahendra Singh Dhoni for helping get the best performance out.
“The wicketkeeper is in such a position that he knows what’s happening off the wicket and what shots the batsmen are going to play. He’s the only one who can tell that you should place this fielder as per this field, and this batsman looks to play a shot in this particular area,” said Jadeja.
“So the understanding between the bowler and keeper should be good. Because the ’keeper knows the strengths of the bowlers and the nature of the wicket.”
When asked how he would tackle things in the hypothetical situation that Jadeja the batsman was facing Jadeja the bowler, his answer was instructive.
“It depends on what wicket I am batting, on what wicket I am bowling. England and India wickets, there’s a difference,” he said, while adding that this good result was not a staking of claim in any way.
Get sharper
“I don’t have to prove anything to anyone else. I have to prove to myself because I have to sharpen my ability and cricket skills. I don’t want to show to anyone that I can do this and I can do that. I only want to challenge myself and see how much better I can perform for India.”
The scores:
Bangladesh 173 in 49.1 overs lost to India 174 for three in 36.2 overs (Rohit Sharma 83 n.o., Shikhar Dhawan 40, M.S. Dhoni 33).
