The India 'A' team that would face the visiting Bangladesh 'A' at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru was picked on Wednesday. Shikhar Dhawan was named the captain of the team that would play a three-day game against the Bangladesh 'A' side and a three-match ODI series.
India 'A' have done well off late in both the shorter as
well as the longer format of the game so one would've not expected
wholesome changes to the squad, but the addition of one member caught
everybody's attention. That member was Ravindra Jadeja.
The 26-year-old's last appearance for India in whites came
in August 2014, in the fourth Test of five-match series against England
at Old Trafford. A subsequent shoulder injury which kept him out of the
Test series in Australia, followed by an unimpressive show at World Cup
that succeeded the Tests meant that the left-arm spinner lost his place
in the side and the selection panel were forced to go back to senior
pro Harbhajan Singh to give some more variety to the attack.
But with Harbhajan remaining largely ineffective. Jadeja's
name has once again returned into the spotlight and this is a great
opportunity for the Saurashtra based – cricketer to regain his spot in
the national set-up in the purest form of the game.
Conditions could force Kohli to play three spinners
If one has a look at the venues where South Africa would
play the four Test matches, you can presume that in two out of the four
venues – Bengaluru and New Delhi – India would definitely be tempted to
play three spinners.
Ravichandran Ashwin looks like he would most certainly feature in the playing XI while Amit Mishra after his good tour to Sri Lanka also could consider his spot a bit assured.
With skipper Virat Kohli heavily in favour of the
five-bowler theory, Jadeja could well be the man to turn to provided he
puts in a good all-round performance in the A fixture against
Bangladesh.
Chance to learn from Rahul Dravid
As a cricket spectator, I don't think any of us had any
issues with Jadeja's bowling except for the fact, instead of bowling
like how a left-arm spinner should, which is to deceive a batsman in
air, Jadeja has looked to dart the ball in at a great pace and while
that can be used as a surprise weapon, overusing that method could
result in predictability and lack of penetration on the part of his
bowling.
When Ashwin was struggling to attain consistency in his
bowling, his childhood coach advised him to get back to bowl the way he
did early on in his career.
dir="ltr">“It was before the England tour that I
advised him to get back to being the off-spinner he was during his first
four years of first-class cricket for Tamil Nadu, which was to pitch
the ball on a fuller length outside the off stump to right-handers and
let the tremendous revolutions that he imparts, both over and side spin,
do its job. It was around the same time that Rahul Dravid, who assisted
the Indian team as a mentor on the tour of England, advised him the
same, as did Muttiah Muralitharan on the virtues of spot bowling.” –
Sunil Subramaniam, R Ashwin's childhood coach.
This is where I think working with Dravid for a period of a
week or so could do wonders for Jadeja. To be able to talk with the
batting legend and understand the technique of beating the batsman in
flight, by drawing him forward and making him play rather than firing
the ball in and making it to easy for him to use the pace and play could
well make him a totally a different bowler and thereby could help him
pick up more wickets as well, which is what is expected out of him.
India also have another option of picking Axar Patel over
Jadeja, which would be a like-for-like choice, but in his short
international career so far, the Gujarat cricketer hasn’t looked too
convincing with the bat and hence will probably not be picked ahead of
Jadeja despite the fact that he put in an effort of 4 for 0 against
South Africa A in Wayanad recently.
With the level of competition for a spot in the national
team, very few get the chance to represent India. Even fewer get a
second chance after not having done very well in their first attempt.
Jadeja, it seems is part of the latter group of players and its time for
him to stand up and show what he is really made off.
Originally published on Sportskeeda.com here
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