Daily Round-up | Jan 8: India dominate Day 2, Steve Smith enters elite club

Inside out | Ravindra Jadeja passing all litmus tests to establish his 'all-round' rise

Players possessing all-round abilities more often than not get labelled as a master of one trait, while being good enough in the other aspect of the game, to bring massive value addition to their sides. For Ravindra Jadeja, the recognition in either category was difficult, and he could blame no other but himself for not being able to perform consistently and stake a claim on the basis of aspect of his game. When Jadeja made his Test debut against England in the last Test of the only Test series India have lost on home soil in the near past, he was picked more for his accurate bowling and a bit of batting who could provide support to an out of form batting lineup. His bowling was not deemed good enough to make him a potent bowler on a flat wicket and although he had a tremendous batting record in the domestic circuit, there were far and few who could trust him to win a game or at least help India in winning a Test match, on any pitch let alone a difficult pitch against champion fast bowlers. He played some freakish innings to defy those critics in his early career, but shining lights were very far and few for the left-hander while his bowling kept on improving. Real change in his bowling came when Indian team entered the phase of Anil Kumble's coaching and ironically it was against England in the 2016-17 series when Jadeja was seen buying his wicket in a manner such inducing cover drive from the right-hander, beating batsmen in flight which was alien to his style of bowling. He started enhancing his supremacy in the Indian conditions but doubts about him excelling in both batting and bowling were not to die sooner. But not anymore, and Jadeja now has earned the right of being one of the main players in the India team set up who could play a Test match in any conditions—home or overseas. The ongoing series against Australia was another litmus test for the all-rounder, by the looks of it till the second day of the third Test, he is passing all the examinations with flying colours. Once belittled as a ‘bits and piece’ cricketer, Jadeja is rising leaps and bounces in both his batting and bowling. Both his batting and bowling were put to test when India needed him in either department in the SCG and the MCG Test. On the first day of the ongoing SCG Test, captain Ajinkya Rahane was blamed for overlooking Jadeja for the most part of the day, as he could not look beyond the tempting duo of Bumrah and Ashwin, who accounted for Smith in the previous three innings of the Test series. Twitter was enraged over the delayed deployment of Jadeja in the bowling attack, and lack of success from Ashwin made way for his entry in the bowling attack. He was on the money from the ball one in his signature style, but that India desperately needed him to come good must have crossed his mind, and the challenger in him took the game head-on. His first over yielded a mere four runs with three overs as maidens. He was successful in building up the pressure on the Australian batsman Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschnage, but with only Bumrah and Ashwin being the experienced pros in the team, and both of them going wicketless till that point in time, the situation demanded more from Jadeja than just holding one end up as they were no Shami and Ishant to provide India with the breakthroughs. A big success in the form of Labuschagne’s wicket came his and India’s way completely against the run of play, and then Bumrah got back in the groove with two quick wickets to put India ahead in the proceedings. You don’t expect your spinners to run through a side in overseas Tests, and they are required to chip in for a couple of breakthroughs when a big partnership is on, and Jadeja did the job brilliantly. By the end of Australia's innings, Jadeja emerged as the leading wicket-taker (four) for India on a pitch that provided him little assistance. He was smart enough to understand why Ashwin struggled to pick wickets apart from an aggressive approach adopted against him by the Australians and read the pitch well to assess that his ideal pace of bowling is suited to a slow but bouncy SCG pitch. Just like the second day of the SCG Test, India needed Jadeja to shine on the second day of the last Test at the MCG as well. This time, however, the desired role could only have been fulfilled in a different avatar. All-rounders are tested almost every game when they are asked to step up one part of their game in certain situations, while the next moments of the game would need their brilliance in other departments. Showing signs of his better technique as a batsman, Jadeja batted with impeccable control against Cummins, Hazlewood, and Starc. Jadeja has had success with the bat on overseas tours like at the Lord’s in 2014, and at the same SCG in the last series, but those innings were built on belligerence and taking calculated risks. His strokeplay could have gone either way and may well have left India in the lurch, but at the MCG, Jadeja brought a better and different version of himself with the bat. He was calm and assured outside the off-stump as Australian pacers kept on teasing him outside the off stump. He trusted his defence to fight out the tough period, unlike his previous successful innings where he had successfully hit out of the tough phases of the game. The innings at the MCG and the partnership with Ajinkya Rahane steered India past the Australian score in a much-measured manner and also established the coming of age of Ravindra Jadeja, the batsman. This Indian team under the leadership of Virat Kohli has taken various leaps and bounces in terms of fitness and stepping up their games on the field, and Ravindra Jadeja is arguably one of the best poster boy of the team as Virat called before the start of the ongoing Test series as ‘New India.’ The team has changed a lot in its cultures, and although they have not won the series in England, South Africa, and England under Virat, there were definite signs of improvements and the Indian bowlers kept the opposition batsmen always under the pump while their run on home turfs have been brutal domination against all teams, except the one game against Australia in Pune in 2017 series. Jadeja’s name will be on the top of the list who have excelled over the years and improved their game big time to look a complete finished package and perform in a manner expected out of him for when he was initially picked in the Indian team.

Late strikes hand Australia the edge after Smith ton

A couple of late jolts dented India after Australia were snuffed out for 338, with Steve Smith compiling a majestic 131

Steve Smith joins elite club

Australia batsman Steve Smith was back in form after scoring a hundred during the first innings of the third Test in Sydney on Friday. Smith completed his 27th Test ton and 8th against India during the course of his 131 before getting runout, courtesy a fine piece of fielding from Ravindra Jadeja who hit the bull’s eye to send the right-hander packing. Smith became the second fastest after Don Bradman to reach 27th ton in Test cricket. He achieved the feat in his 136th innings while Bradman took just 70 innings to do so. India skipper Virat Kohli is at number three in the list as he reached the milestone in 146 innings. Smith also stands at number two in the list of the batsmen with most number Test hundreds since 2010. Kohli is at the helm with 27 tons while Smith follows him with 26 centuries to his name. Kane Williamson and David Warner have scored 24 while former England captain Alastair Cook has notched up 23. The former Australian skipper has now scored 1570 Test runs against India in 25 inns (with an average of 74.76). “I’m reading a lot of things people say that I’m out of form but think I think there’s a difference between out of form and out of runs,” Smith told Fox Cricket at the drinks break. “Just nice to score a few and maybe keep a few people quiet.” Australia were bowled out for 338 in the first innings of the third Test. Will Pucovski who made a debut in this match scored 62 while Marnus Labuschagne missed out on a hundred by just 9 runs to end his innings at 91. Jadeja picked up a four-for for India while debutant Navdeep Saini scalped a couple of wickets. The four-match series is presently levelled at 1-1.

Dropping catches cost us the series: Misbah

Pakistan suffered a 0-2 loss to New Zealand in a two-match Test series away from home. Talking about the defeats, head coach Misbah-ul-Haq has said that the dropped catches were one of the major reasons for the team’s dismal show. “I think the biggest thing in front of us, that we have seen in the past with Pakistan cricket as well, is our dropped chances," the head coach said in a PCB podcast. "I think that has really affected our chances in this series. We missed a lot in both Tests, in which if we had grabbed them, we could have taken the Test further, but we missed them. We need to work on that." Misbah admitted that the Pakistan team created some chances for themselves but didn’t really capitalise on them. “On this tour we had opportunities, we created those by playing well but didn't cash in on them. We have to see why we are getting in positions where we can close Tests but are not being able to do it ultimately,” he further added. Pakistan lost the first match by 101 runs after New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson scored a fine hundred in the first innings. Williamson continued his form in the second match too and notched up a double ton as the home side etched a win by an innings and 176 runs. The Test series win handed New Zealand the top spot in the ICC Test rankings while captain Williamson has also moved up to the helm spot in the Test rankings for batsmen.