India captain Rohit Sharma has praised Ravindra Jadeja as ‘one of the top all-rounders’ in the world and has now set his eyes on getting much more batting out of him.
Jadeja batted at No.7 in the first Test versus Sri Lanka in Mohali and scored 175 not-out.
“As a captain, I want to use Jadeja a lot more with the bat. We all know his bowling and everyone knows about his fielding,” Rohit stated following India’s victory in Mohali.
“To me, he is one of the top (all-rounders) definitely. Look at the performances. To score 175 not out and take nine wickets in the game, he’s just upping his game every time we see him. In the past as well, when we played in India, his contribution with the bat lower down the order and taking those crucial wickets (has been great). You know, he just seems to be adding a lot more to his game every time he plays. He’s very hungry, as you can see. That hunger is something that drives athletes to move forward. I see that in Jadeja clearly. He’s quite hungry for success, for runs and do well for the team.”
In regard to what Rohit stated, Jadeja had pocketed a promotion in the first T20I facing Sri Lanka and batted at No.5. He went on to play a match-winning partnership with Shreyas Iyer.
“When I talk to him about certain things, he is very open-minded. He wants to take the responsibility, he wants to take the challenge. The example was there in the T20I series against Sri Lanka. I just casually asked him if he would want to bat up the order, and he was open to it. That is why we asked him to go up in the first T20,” Rohit stated.
Ravichandran Ashwin, in an interview after the match, also pondered if Jadeja is batting too low in Tests.
“He has really come a long way in the last four-five years. I think his position is a little low for the way he is batting at the moment. That’s what I think,” Ashwin stated. “His batting has gone one notch higher. He knows what he is doing and it reflects in the way he is batting.”
Rohit was also impressed with Ashwin who went past Kapil Dev’s record of 434 Test wickets and is now India’s second-highest wicket-fetcher in the format.
“He’s an all-time great in my book. He’s been playing for so many years and given so many match-winning performances,” Rohit stated.
“It’s a big thing in his cricketing career to achieve that feat. When you grow up, wanting to play Test cricket, you don’t dream about all these things. So to surpass that, it’s a big achievement on his behalf. And I’ve been watching a stream for a long time now and every time I’m watching, he seems to get better and better. Ashwin is one of those kind of players who always have confidence in their ability. Whatever he wants to go out there and achieve for himself and then for the team as well.”
