"He played more traditional style Test match than Rohit Sharma and Sarfaraz Khan"- Michael Vaughan hails Ravindra Jadeja for fine hundred
Former England captain Michael Vaughan was highly impressed with the way Indian all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja went about his batting on Day 1 of the third Test against England in Rajkot.
Having walked out to bat with the hosts reeling at 33/3, Jadeja stitched a mammoth partnership (204 runs) with Rohit Sharma to consolidate their innings. He had another important partnership of 77 runs with Sarfaraz Khan.
Speaking to Cricbuzz after the end of play on Day 1, Michael Vaughan opined that Ravindra Jadeja was even more patient than his partners in those two big partnerships. Vaughan said:
"Jadeja's mindset is like a top-order batter despite him playing at No.7 for the most part of his career. He is willing to do the hard yards, he is willing to see a bowler off, he played more traditional style Test match than Rohit Sharma and Sarfaraz Khan. He was a throwback to how we played Test match cricket. Just bat, bat and bat, do not give any chances."
Jadeja was involved in an unfortunate run-out of Sarfaraz Khan that ended the debutant's promising innings of 62. However, the all-rounder is still unbeaten on 110 and the hosts already have 326/5 on the board. Vaughan feels if India breach the 450-run mark, it could be a massive total.
Michael Vaughan on Ravindra Jadeja's consistency
Michael Vaughan also shed light on how consistent Ravindra Jadeja has been with the bat, especially in home conditions. He reckoned that once the England bowlers stopped getting help from the Rajkot surface, it was all about Jadeja piling more and more misery on the visitors.
On this, Vaughan stated:
"Ravindra Jadeja is a class act. There is only one area of his game where you can challenge him - a yard outside of off stump, fuller length where you can nip it away. Jimmy and Mark Wood tried that through the day. he played and missed a few. On Indian wickets where there is not a lot of zip, I tink that he is a very very consistent performer."
Jadeja has nightwatchman Kuldeep Yadav (1*) for company at the start of play on Day 2. However, with debutant Dhruv Jurel and Ravichandran Ashwin to follow, it seems like the local boy will need to do the bulk of the scoring to take India to a substantial first innings total.