ENG vs IND | Ravindra Jadeja moves on from IPL controversy with 1st overseas century: What happened, happened
India Today
Ravindra Jadeja scored his first overseas century for India in the crucial moments of the fifth Test match against England. Jadeja’s ton helped India achieve a mammoth score of 416 in the first innings.
Indian all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja said that he had moved on from the Indian Premier League controversy that happened in the month of May. Captaining the Chennai Super Kings for the first time, Jadeja’s season turned into one of horror after repeated poor outings as a player and as a captain. Chennai were forced to give the baton of captaincy back to the legendary MS Dhoni, who in a lengthy interview said that the pressure of leadership affected Jadeja, despite knowing that he will be captaining the team in 2022.
Speaking at the press conference after the second day of the fifth Test match against England, Jadeja said that he had moved on from the incident and his full focus was on playing and performing for India.
“What happened, happened. IPL was not on my mind. Whenever you are playing for India, your entire focus needs to be on the Indian team. It was the same for me, there is no better satisfaction that performing well for India,” he said.
This was Jadeja’s first overseas century and it came at a time where India were left in a precarious position after losing five wickets inside the first 100 runs of the game.
"It feels really good to do it outside India, especially in England. To hit a 100 as a player is a really big thing. I can really take some confidence in myself as a player from this, to score a 100 in England especially in swinging conditions, so yeah it feels really good," he said.
After Jadeja stabilised the innings with Rishabh Pant, stand-in captain Jasprit Bumrah chose to throw caution out of the window and hit Stuart Broad for the most expensive over in the history of Test cricket - for 35 runs.Jadeja hailed the tail for adding crucial bonus runs and stated that it was not a fluke.
"Our 9, 10 and 11 do plenty of batting practice. Our team management ensures they work on their batting at practice. It is a nice feeling when the 9,10 and 11 score the runs because it is a bonus for the team.Whenever Bumrah bats in the nets he takes it seriously.It is not like when he bats he has a casual approach, he puts a price on his wicket. The last 40-50 runs he scored along with others is a bonus," he concluded.
