Top 5 batting performances in the Indian home season of 2016-17
The 2016/17 cricket season has been nothing short of sensational for the young Indian side. Pulling off a victory in the fourth Test against Australia at Dharamsala on a pitch that favoured the visitors more than the hosts, and that too after losing the toss, and their skipper Virat Kohli to injury, was the icing on the cake.
During this tremendous run, India have played three Tests against New Zealand, five against England, one against Bangladesh and four against Australia, winning 10 and losing only one Test, drawing two.
During this period, India has found some unlikely heroes, brilliant centuries, back-from-the-dead batting shows, dominating innings and sterling batting of the old conventional kind with a lot of hard grind.
Each of them has a significance and here, we look at the top five batting performances by Indians in this home season.
#5 Ravindra Jadeja – 90 v England, Mohali
Nothing would delight an Indian fan more than watching Ravindra Jadeja evolve over the last one year. Jadeja, who is one of only three players, along with Kapil Dev and Mitchell Johnson to register 500 runs and 50 wickets, scored some crucial runs lower down the order as well.
The best of them was against England in the third Test at Mohali when India was batting second. They were 204 for 6 after a middle order collapse, still trailing by 79 runs. Jadeja played excellent counter-attacking cricket, first adding 97 with Ravichandran Ashwin, who scored 72 runs, and then adding another 80 runs with Jayant Yadav, who scored 55.
India reached 417, and managed a lead of 134 runs and eventually won the match by 8 wickets, chasing down the target of 104 easily.
Jadeja’s knock also marked his maturity with the bat, where he moved from being a rash stroke-maker to someone who was able to grind down the opposition and wait for the right opportunity. He also played out 170 balls, the highest in that Indian innings.