Jadeja makes up for lost time, and how!

The Saurashtra-Tamil Nadu Ranji game in the last week of January helped him get his rhythm back, says all-rounder

He missed more than five months of competitive cricket following knee surgery. But, Ravindra Jadeja made up for all the lost time by marking his return to international cricket with a five-wicket haul on the first day of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

The all-rounder admitted that missing out on the Asia Cup and the T20 World Cup due to an injury was difficult to deal with, adding that the Ranji game for Saurashtra in the last week of January helped him get his rhythm back.

“It was difficult as I have missed a lot of cricket in last five months, missed important tournaments. Rehabs are tough on players and it’s even tougher to keep the level of performance post rehab. You need the confidence to not let your performance be affected post injury,” Jadeja said after the first day’s play of the series-opener.

“My motivation was to get fit as quickly as possible as I had already spent five months out of cricket and I wanted to be 100% fit, so it took me some more time. The Tamil Nadu game gave me confidence that I can play Test cricket.

“Feeling fit physically and giving your 100% in a match situation are two different things. The doubt that I wanted to clear is whether I am able to give that 100% in a match situation,” he said.

While the Australian media has christened the selectively watered pitch for the Test as “doctored” and “rank turner”, Jadeja felt it was a typical Indian wicket.

“This isn’t a rank turner. Compared to other wickets, it was slow and had low bounce. I felt defending wasn’t very difficult today for the batters. But, as the game progresses, defending will become increasingly difficult. But that’s the nature of Test cricket. It’s not a rank turner,” he stated.