IND vs SL 2022: As a captain, I want to use Jadeja a lot more with the bat – Rohit Sharma

 

Indian captain Rohit Sharma in a short stint as full-time captain has made one thing clear – he wants to make the most of Ravindra Jadeja – the batsman. Rohit had promoted Jadeja to number four and five in the three-match T20I series against Sri Lanka and the left-hander had grabbed his opportunity with both hands.

Jadeja has taken giant strides while batting at the top level and has done a fine job with the bat. The left-hander scored a magnum opus knock of unbeaten 175 runs in the first Test match against Sri Lanka and batted at the top of his game. The southpaw looked untroubled at the crease and played some amazing shots throughout his knock.

Furthermore, Jadeja scalped nine wickets in the Test match, returning with 5-41 in the first innings and then 4-46 in the second dig. Ergo, he ticked all the right boxes as a all-rounder and Rohit hailed his ‘Rockstar’ player.

“As a captain, I want to use Jadeja a lot more with the bat. We all know his bowling and everyone knows about his fielding,” Rohit said after India’s win in Mohali.

“To me, he is one of the top (allrounders) definitely. Look at the performances. To score 175 not out and take nine wickets in the game, he’s just upping his game every time we see him. In the past as well, when we played in India, his contribution with the bat lower down the order and taking those crucial wickets (has been great). You know, he just seems to be adding a lot more to his game every time he plays. He’s very hungry, as you can see. That hunger is something that drives athletes to move forward. I see that in Jadeja clearly. He’s quite hungry for success, for runs and do well for the team.

In fact, Rohit revealed that he had asked Jadeja to bat up the order in the T20I series against Sri Lanka and he was open to it.

“When I talk to him about certain things, he is very open-minded. He wants to take the responsibility, he wants to take the challenge. The example was there in the T20I series against Sri Lanka. I just casually asked him if he would want to bat up the order, and he was open to it. That is why we asked him to go up in the first T20,” Rohit said.

On the other hand, Ravichandran Ashwin also feels Ravindra Jadeja is batting too low in Test matches as he has significantly improved his batting.

“He has really come a long way in the last four-five years. I think his position is a little low for the way he is batting at the moment. That’s what I think,” Ashwin said. “His batting has gone one notch higher. He knows what he is doing and it reflects in the way he is batting.”

The second Test match will be played in Bengaluru.