Sri Lanka Vs India 2017: Guys Like Ravindra Jadeja Are Very Rare To Find, Says Virat Kohli

India captain Virat Kohli, on Sunday (August 6), heaped lavish praise on Ravindra Jadeja after the allrounder’s starring role in the massive win over Sri Lanka in  the second Test at Colombo. The southpaw scored 70 in the first innings and took 7 wickets including 5 in the second innings as India clinched the three-match series by winning the match by an innings and 53 runs.

Jadeja walked into bat in the first innings when the score was 496 for 7 and forged useful partnerships with Wriddhiman Saha and tail-enders, scoring an unbeaten half-century to propel India to a mammoth 622 for 9 (declared). In the second innings, he made even a bigger impact to help India win the Test inside 4 days. At 241 for 3, Sri Lanka were looking set to score big but Jadeja ran through their lineup to quash their hopes. The spinner, who recently became the fastest left-arm bowler to 150 Test wickets, took 5 wickets including the wickets of skipper Dinesh Chandimal, centurion Dimuth Karunaratne and Angelo Mathews. He was awarded the Man of the Match for his brilliant allround show.

“Guys who have both abilities are very rare to find. That’s where we think they’re very precious, specially in the longer format because they provide you with great balance. He can give you a very quick 60-70 anywhere at any stage of the game, it can really turn the game. Remember Lord’s, remember Dharamsala against Australia, those are very important innings, the 90 against England in Mohali. So it’s not just when the batters are doing well, his runs have come under pressure,” Kohli said at the post-match conference.

“Also, he has the ability, he believes in it and he’s worked extra hard in the last 10-12 months on his batting. He’s bowled so much that the other discipline was left behind, but now he’s catching up in that as well. It’s only going to do good to him. If he doesn’t bowl well on a particular day, he can score runs. Once he scores runs, then he gets confidence with the ball also. He’s always in the game, his fielding as well. I would say he’s a very valuable cricketer for us,” he added.