Australia vs India 2018-19: Miscommunication in the Indian side?
The confusion regarding the reason for non-selection of Ravindra Jadeja in the second Test match tells us there's something wrong in the team management of the number one Test side in the world as the captain, coach and the selectors give different reasons why he wasn't selected in the second Test match in Perth. We don't know for sure why this is happening but it's definitely not good for the Indian side.
It all started when India decided to play an all-pace attack after Ashwin got injured in the first Test match. Australia, on the other hand, stuck with their premier spin bowler Nathan Lyon. He gave a match-winning performance by taking eight wickets and was also awarded the Man of the Match.
These type of selection problems have been going on for a while now for the Indian side starting from their tour of England earlier this year. But, what followed after this selection blip was very interesting.
When the obvious questions were asked that why Jadeja wasn't picked instead of Umesh Yadav who performed badly, captain Virat Kohli in the press conference said that it was a bouncy pitch and with all the grass on the pitch there was on the first day of the Test match they didn't consider playing a spinner like Jadeja. Nowhere in his interview, he mentioned Jadeja was injured that is why he wasn't considered.
Then came the Indian coach Ravi Shastri with his interview on Sunday and he said Jadeja was suffering with a stiff shoulder and hasn't been fit since the day he landed in Australia. He was 70-80% fit and that is the reason why he wasn't considered for selection.
For obvious reasons then, the selectors were then questioned why Jadeja was selected for the tour in the first place, to which they replied they never select an unfit player in the team. If Jadeja was selected in the team he must be 100% fit.
All this led to a theory of miscommunication in the Indian side. Nobody knows for sure what's going on in the Indian camp, we as spectators can only speculate and hope for the best.
The third Test match of this four-match Test series starts from 26 December at the iconic stadium MCG