Pragyan Ojha Decodes How Ravindra Jadeja The Bowler Picked Australian Batsmen

Former Indian left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha dissected Ravindra Jadeja’s potentially game-changing display on the second day of the third Test against Australia in Sydney. Ravindra Jadeja was one of the candidates who lead India’s fightback on the second day after Australia took the honours on the first. Pragyan Ojha pointed out that the left-arm spinner imposed the extra pace to take wickets.

Ravindra Jadeja took the wickets of Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Pat Cummins, and Matthew Wade, notching up figures of 18-3-36-4. Besides an imperious bowling performance, he also ran out Australia’s centurion Steve Smith. Smith’s 27th Test century lifted Australia to 338 following which they reduced the visitors to 96-2 through some tight bowling.

Pragyan Ojha pointed out that on day one, Ravindra Jadeja was trying too hard and must have gone back to the drawing board ahead of day two, bringing improvements. The 34-year old believes that Jadeja stuck to his strengths, which is to keep things tight. Ojha underlined that the 31-year old bowled stump to stump without bowling easy deliveries to get the wickets.

“He brilliant you know. If you see, yesterday he was kind of, I thought, he was trying a bit more. But today if you see, he must have realised, spoken to the bowling coach, maybe seen his videos and check where the balls he had bowled the previous day were landing. So I think he’s come back with a plan and that’s what he has done. He has bowled to his strength and his strength his keep things very tight. Bowl to the stump and not bowl any easy deliveries and that’s how he got his wickets,” Ojha told Sports Today.

I think, he used little bit of his wrist and his shoulders to generate that pace: Pragyan Ojha

Pragyan Ojha further stated that there was bounce in Ravindra Jadeja’s deliveries and the pace generated was significant in unsettling the Australian batsmen. Ojha believes that the extra speed got caused due to his wrist and shoulders.

“Yes, there was bounce in Jadeja’s ball. But more than that it was, if you see previous deliveries he was bowling a little short and slow. And if you see the pace that he generated off the wicket was more than the deliveries that he was hit for boundaries. So I think, he used little bit of his wrist and his shoulders to generate that pace,” he added.

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