Ravindra Jadeja expresses his desire to represent India in all three formats
What's the story
Indian spinner-allrounder Ravindra Jadeja is confident of being able to represent his country across all the major cricketing formats. It is apparent that the left-arm orthodox bowler is not satisfied with his limited window of opportunity in Tests alone, as of right now.
In case you didn't know...
“Jaddu” has 173 wickets from 37 Test matches, 155 from 135 ODIs and 31 from 40 T20Is. In the IPL, he has 93 wickets from 154 appearances. He also has 3226 international runs from the 213 games he has played across formats.
In the final game of the ongoing series, Jadeja finally got a chance to come off the bench and repaid his captains' faith with effective figures of 2/57 at the end of Day 1. He played a key role in restraining the English run-rate as well.
The details
Jadeja opined that playing Test cricket alone would not help him maintain a fine shape capable of competing in the international stages. He hence felt that a branching-out to other formats was essential.
He talked to the media after the end of first day's play at the Oval. He explained how his current role in the squad as the lone spinner and a bowling allrounder satisfies him but not completely.
“For me, the biggest thing is that I am playing for India and maybe someday if I do well, I will be back playing all three formats of the game soon enough. But my aim is to convert any opportunity I get into performance,” he said, before adding: ““Whenever I get an opportunity to play for India, I will give my best in both aspects — batting and bowling. I want to become a trusted member of the team and I can fulfill the all-rounder slot well because I have done it before in the past”.
He concluded by praising the efforts of the other bowlers in the game as well, as their combined efforts reduced England to 198/7 at the end of the day's play.
What's next
The Indians may have aimed to wipe out the rest of the English tail today morning, but they have clearly not succeeded. England is currently at 286/8 in 110 overs, with Moeen Ali being the only wicket that India could get so far, since the start of the second day's play.
England's score has started to look dangerous now, and India may have already taken a step in the wrong direction, despite an intent to win the last game of the already-surrendered series.