Rohit Sharma Praises Jadeja: India captain Rohit Sharma has hailed Ravindra Jadeja as “one of the top all-rounders” in the world and has now set his sights on getting much more batting out of the 33-year-old.
Jadeja batted at No.7 in the first Test against Sri Lanka in Mohali and scored 175 not out to go with his nine wickets in the game. With the splendid performance from the Jadeja team India leads the home test series against Sri Lanka by 1-0 in the 2 match test series.
Rohit Sharma Praises Jadeja
“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 line with what Rohit said, Jadeja had earned a promotion in the first T20I against Sri Lanka and batted at No.5. He went on to play a match-winning knock alongside Shreyas Iyer.
“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.
Ashwin on Jadeja’s Performance
Ravichandran Ashwin, in a sideline interview after the match, also wondered if Jadeja is batting too low in Tests.
“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.”
Rohit Praises Ashwin
Rohit also was all praise for Ashwin who went past Kapil Dev’s tally of 434 Test wickets and is now India’s second-highest wicket-taker in the format.
“He’s an all-time great in my book. He’s been playing for so many years and given so many match-winning performances,” Rohit said.
“It’s a big thing in his cricketing career to achieve that feat. When you grow up, wanting to play Test cricket, you don’t dream about all these things. So to surpass that, it’s a big achievement on his behalf. And I’ve been watching a stream for a long time now and every time I’m watching, he seems to get better and better. Ashwin is one of those kinds of players who always have confidence in their ability. Whatever he wants to go out there and achieve for himself and then for the team as well.”
India will lock horns against Sri Lanka to play the 2nd snd final test match on March 12 at M.Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru.
