Our Bureau
London
India’s loss at the Lord’s Test stung all the fans as the team got so close to the finish line on the back of superhuman efforts from Ravindra Jadeja and the tailenders. However, many experts and cricket legends have stated that they thought Jadeja could have used a more attacking approach of play and maybe fancied his chances against English spinner Shoaib Bashir.
Indian Cricket legends like Anil Kumble, Sunil Gavaskar, Ravichandran Ashwin and even Sourav Ganguly have all criticised Jadeja on his defensive approach. While many criticised the allrounder, one of India’s finest red ball batters, Cheteshwar Pujara has come out in Jadeja’s defence and supported his style of play in the Lord’s Test.
Pujara stated that Jadeja couldn’t have scored faster on that slow pitch with the ball getting softer. He stated that Jadeja tried his luck with the tailenders and was looking to take India closer to the targeted. Once India would have reached closed, then Jadeja would have taken some risk and tried to attack.
“He couldn’t have scored faster on that track. I felt that it was because the ball was soft, and the pitch was on the slower side. I guess, Jadeja would have thought that the tailenders were batting well and the team was getting close to the total. And once they were a little closer, he would have taken his chances. I thought he was batting well. It was very difficult to score runs on that pitch. The only thing he could have done better is to look to score down the ground. Like there was a gap between mid-off and cover,” Pujara said.
After the huge victory in the Lord’s test, the England team now lead the 5-match series 2-1. Both the teams will now face each other at the fabled Old Trafford in Manchester in the 4th test starting from July 23rd. England only need to win one test for clinching the Anderson Tendulkar Trophy while India will now have to win both the matches to bring the trophy home.
