Is this the start of something special for Ravindra Jadeja?
Ravindra Jadeja finally gets the breakthrough he deserves. Cricket fans all over the world got furious after ICC designated him as 'Sir Ravindra Jadeja'. His critics finally got the answer today when he impressed the pundits after a four-wicket haul on his comeback to ODI cricket.
After a scintillating 86-run innings against England in the last test, here comes Jadeja again with his 90 seconds overs and with the same stump to stump deliveries.
This might be a brilliant chance to make a comeback into the side after playing his last ODI in June 2017 in The Champions Trophy Finals.
While Pandya is down with an injury, the best option to replace Pandya was Jadeja, who is more than capable of batting at No. 7 and tightening the screws on opposition's scoring rate while chipping in with some important dismissals.
After cleaning the rust off his bowling in the first four balls of his spell, he got the big fish in Shakib Al Hassan, thanks to subtle variation in speed and inspired field change by MS Dhoni, who prompted Rohit to make a field change by moving Dhawan from slips to the square leg in the 10th over of the innings.
He also took the crucial wicket of Mithun who played a gem of an innings against Sri Lanka. Although not given LBW by the umpire in his previous over, Jadeja made it up in his very next over by dismissing him in the same fashion.
Covering the short midwicket region of his own bowling was once again the highlight of his fielding prowess.
Then came the wicket of the diminutive wicket-keeper batsman Mushfiqur Rahim in his fifth over with a faulty shot selection. Taking nothing away from the bowler, he bowled very tight overs before inviting the batsman for a reverse sweep.
Dismissing the three best batsmen of Bangladesh, he penetrated another nail in the coffin by getting Mosaddek Hossain caught out in his final over.
He finished with an outstanding figure of 4/29 in his full quota of 10 overs even after getting smashed for 13 runs in his first over. Definitely, this bowling performance deserves a Man of the Match Award.
This might be the start of a magical comeback for Jadeja. As a place for the second all-rounder and the third spinner is up for grabs in the World Cup 2019 squad, he would like to make full use of this opportunity by proving his worth to the team in all the three departments.