Ravindra Jadeja dragged for controversial Test captaincy remark after India’s loss: ‘Bas 2-3 fielder idhar udhar kar do’
India all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja finds himself in the middle of a social media trial for a comment he made almost a month ago. Jadeja, who had a match to forget in the first Test between India and England in Leeds, got dragged into the discussion after his lacklustre performance at Headingley. Jadeja scored 11* and 25* with the bat, and finished with bowling figures of 0/68 and 1/104. Besides, Jadeja even copped flak for dropping a catch, the first of many for India, as England piled 465 runs in their first innings. The India all-rounder, who has been the backbone of this batting order and remains one of the more experienced guys in the squad, however, did not please fans, as they brought back his remark about Test captaincy. Ravindra Jadeja didn’t have the greatest of outings in Leeds(Reuters) In a conversation with former India spinner Ravichandran Ashwin, Jadeja has expressed his desire to captain India in Tests after Rohit Sharma announced his retirement, but his following comment did not sit too well with the fans, now more than ever.”Test cricket mein, bas 2-3 fielder idhar-udhar kar do (In Test cricket, you have to change two or three fielders) as per the need of the bowler and you don’t need to change the field as per batters. So I feel captaincy in Tests is different. It’s simple, in the sense that you get to know when a bowler is in good rhythm and when not,” he had said. Also Read: Yuvraj Singh’s ‘unforgiving’ take after India surrender to England despite 5 centuries; Harbhajan demands urgent change “A lot of it is calculative, but I don’t think it’s as challenging as an ODI or T20I. In T20s, every ball is a challenge. The Test format is comparatively not hectic. I have played with so many captains, so I have seen what it’s like. You don’t have to shuffle the batting order or look at the right-left batting combination much. It’s simple.” Here are some of the fan reactions: Was Ravindra Jadeja ever a deserving captaincy candidate? Jadeja, at 36, could go down as one of the few deserving candidates to have never captained India. Since 2013, he has remained an invaluable member of this team, never dropped from the Playing XI due to form. In fact, since 2017, Jadeja’s batting graph has picked up significantly, scoring all four of his centuries. But his poor outing in the series opener against England refreshed fans’ memories. It must not be forgotten that Jadeja has played some crucial knocks in Test matches for India, including a half-century at Lord’s in 2014 and 104 at Edgbaston in 2022. Just last year itself, as India beat England 4-1 at home, Jadeja had played a superb innings of 112 in Rajkot. Ashwin, who himself missed out on the opportunity to captain India in Tests, had previously advocated to Jadeja to take up the position. “Why do we forget about Ravindra Jadeja? If you are willing to go for a new person as captain, I would say why not make him an understudy of an experienced guy for two years before handing him the job on a full-time basis?” India’s second-highest wicket-taker in Tests had said.