Despite England captain Alastair Cook winning the toss on Wednesday morning, most people expected India to have a big home advantage going into play in the first Test at Rajkot. That wasn’t the case, though, as the visitors posted a mammoth 537 in their first innings.
Indian cricketer Ravindra Jadeja, whose home ground in domestic cricket is the Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium, feels that the toss played a crucial factor in the state of the match. He expects the pitch to start assisting the spinners soon and mentioned that England got the best out of the batting conditions.
“I think the toss (that India lost) took away the game. Everyone knows that on the first two days, the Rajkot wicket suits batsmen and after that the spinners come into play. That’s all I can say,” said Jadeja.
“As the game progresses, the pitch will get slower. From one end, where there are some foot marks, deliveries can spin. But the middle portion has remained the same. Yesterday and today, the fast bowlers had some help but over the next few days the wicket will become slower.”
Jadeja refused to blame Ravichandran Ashwin after the Tamil Nadu spinner’s poor performance with the ball. Ashwin picked up just two wickets while conceding 167 runs.
The left-arm spinner also spoke about the numerous dropped catches which cost India big time.
“We have five bowlers and all five bowlers have the responsibility and not only Ashwin. As it happens sometimes chances go down, it’s all part of the game. Everyone is responsible in equal measure,” he said.
Jadeja was India’s most successful bowler, with figures of 3/86, but Indian captain Virat Kohli gave him just nine overs on Thursday. The reason behind it could have been the presence of the left-handed batsman Ben Stokes in the middle.
“That was the captain’s thinking. He must have had his own reasons looking from the team’s point of view. I don’t think it was his plan to deliberately bowl (Ravichandran) Ashwin and (Amit) Mishra more,” Jadeja added.
[interaction id=”5821856b2aaef130597d48fb”]