India ended Day 4 of the ongoing second Test against England on a dominating note. Shubman Gill and co declared their second innings at 427/6 and set a whopping target of 608 for England. Coming out to for chase, the hosts lost three wickets, including the star batter Joe Root, with only 72 runs on the board at stumps. England now need 536 runs more with seven wickets in hand on the final day. Despite this dominating show from India, the performance of all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja left the commentators fuming.
During their second innings, India were in a strong position as skipper Shubman Gill hammered 161 runs while Rishabh Pant scored 65 off 58 balls. However, Jadeja, who was batting alongside Gill, completely failed to provide the required momentum.
In the second session on Day 4, Jadeja faced 68 balls and managed to hit just one boundary. However, after coming back from the tea break, he hammered a huge six off Shoaib Bashir. Seeing this, commentators and former England stars Nasser Hussain and Mike Atherton questioned why Jadeja took so much time before showing his aggressive side.
“He should have been doing that before tea,” said Atherton.
Replying to Atherton, Nasser stated that if India fail to clinch a victory from this position, they will definitely look back to the second session.
“Very odd. Why? Why does it take a tea break for someone to say, right, let’s get on with it? Every moment in a Test match, whether it be the moment after tea or the moment before tea is important. If they have England nine down and go to the Lords 1-0 down, they will look at that half hour before tea and say, why does it need the coach to tell us to get on with it?” said Nasser.
Jadeja’s intent not to go attacking until a clear message came from the head coach Gautam Gambhir, seems to have resulted in a delayed declaration. An early attack from the all-rounder might have taken India to the desired score sooner, prompting Gill to declare early.
Jadeja went on to score an unbeaten 69 off 118 balls before Gill announced the declaration of India’s innings at 427/6.
