Lord's Test: Yes, Ravindra Jadeja should have shown more intent. But, was he capable of it?
If he had managed to see India through on the final day of the Lord's Test against England, it may have arguably become Ravindra Jadeja's greatest Test innings. Not that his 61*(181) should be undervalued just because India lost the game but a win would have been a fitting end to a laudable effort.
At 112/8, India seemed destined for a heavy defeat with just Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj left to support Jadeja. However, the all-rounder dug in deep, stitching a 35-run stand with Bumrah followed by a 23-run partnership with Siraj for the last wicket. Which meant that the last two wickets added 58 runs for India, which is just a shade more than one-third of their second innings total of 170.
The other mind-boggling stat is that Jadeja, along with Bumrah and Siraj, faced a total of 35.2 overs together, which is roughly 52 per cent of deliveries faced by India in the second innings! If only their specialist batters and all-rounders had shown more application, they might well have gotten across the line.
Among the several topics discussed and debated by the pundits and fans alike, one popular talking point is regarding the tempo of Jadeja's innings. Should he have shown more intent with the bat, especially while batting with the tail? Or rather - could he have done so?
It is one thing to say that a player should have adopted a particular method but quite another topic altogether to evaluate whether that player was capable of executing the alternate method. When you reflect on the final stages of the Lord's Test, you may think of the Headingley Ashes Test of 2019 when Ben Stokes played a superlative innings to get England over the line in a similarly tense run chase. Or Kusal Perera's legendary century with the tail to orchestrate Sri Lanka's stunning heist against South Africa in Durban in February, 2019. There are more examples to cite but these two are arguably the greatest knocks played in the modern era of Test cricket.
However, the only comparison that seems fair to Jadeja with Stokes and Perera is the fact that they are all left-handers. When it comes to Stokes and Perera, both are aggressive batters. For such players, adopting a defensive game is purely for the sake of the format. Therefore, when they bat with the tail, there are always phases when they can afford to play their natural game without appearing to be compulsive. That's purely because they are natural ball-strikers, players who can instill fear in opposition bowling attacks when on song.
Intimdating bowling attacks with his batting is not Jadeja's style. You might speak of his finisher knocks in Chennai Super Kings colours or the few odd knocks that he has played for India batting in the lower order but the fact remains that the southpaw is a compulsive attacker rather than a natural aggressor. Like, say, Rishabh Pant or Hardik Pandya, or even skipper Shubman Gill. These are all players who have a greater attacking pedigree as well as a far bigger range of strokes.
Jadeja, in comparison, is your dedicated workman who has limitations but will put his heart and soul into the task, hoping that his determination will compensate for the lack of versatility. And Test cricket does reward players like him, which is why his Test batting has increased exponentially over the last decade. Till the end of 2015, Jadeja's batting average was only 21.50 but currently, he averages a far superior 36.97. That is a phenomenal surge for someone who started out batting in the lower order before climbing his way up on merit.
However, the method to Jadeja's madness lies in old-school Test match batting. Not in bludgeoning his way to scores like a Pant or a Jaiswal. They are all left-handers but like human beings, they are all different as cricketers too. On the fifth day of the third Test against England at Lord's, Jadeja walked out at 71/5 after Pant had just been sent packing by Jofra Archer. The all-rounder soon saw KL Rahul depart to a scorcher from Stokes before Archer took out Washington Sundar too. Just like that, the score became 82/7.
To his credit, Jadeja didn't panic and amid all the mayhem around him, trusted his own methods at the crease. From the outside, it seemed logical as long as he was batting with Nitish Reddy, a fellow batting all-rounder. Once he started to bat with the tail, Jadeja had a couple of problems to deal with. The soft Dukes ball wasn't all that easy to put away, particularly on a Lord's pitch that had variable bounce. In addition, Stokes had set a largely defensive field with plenty of fielders in the deep.
In such a scenario, Jadeja trying to be aggressive with his limited attacking abilities could only have backfired for India. The southpaw's go-to strokes are mostly down the ground, especially on the leg-side when it comes to the big hits. Therefore, it would have been a much bigger mountain to climb for Jadeja if he had chosen for calculative assaults, although India would have ideally needed that from him.
The thing about batting with the tail with 81 runs still needed to win is that you can't think of winning it in singles. Jadeja mostly stuck to his methods of facing a few balls each over, working a single and then trusting Bumrah or Siraj to hold their end. If India needed just about 20-25 more when they came in, it may well have worked. But 81 was such a tall order.
Jadeja did hit a six when he charged down and slammed a biggie over wide long-on but in those conditions with his limitations, attempting those on a regular basis could only have increased India's margin of defeat. To his credit, Saurashtra man did as much as he could but the fact is that he couldn't have pulled it off on his own. India need to reflect on the approach of their specialist batters who were guilty of being inefficient during crunch moments.
India don't need any motivation for turning up at Manchester, given the high intensity levels that the series is being played in. But, if they need someone for inspiration, they needn't look past Jadeja. If the specialist batters had shown the same grit as him, India would have been celebrating another glorious win at Lord's.
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