Ravindra Jadeja Faces Backlash Over Test Captaincy Remarks After India Defeat

The Indian all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja made it into the headlines after the first Test against England for his performance and the statements he made in the recent podcast with the former Indian cricketer Ravichandran Ashwin. Almost a month ago, Jadeja made a comment on test cricket and the fields set in by the captain in the format. He scored 11 and 25* runs in both the innings with the bat and had bowling figures of 0/68 and 1/104. Besides that, he also dropped a catch, which is generally not expected from him, as he is considered one of the best options when it comes to fielding. He is one of the senior players on the team and the backbone of the batting order in the squad; however, the statement made by him was not appropriate and was not liked by many cricket fans.

In a podcast with R. Ashwin, Jadeja said,

"Test cricket mein, bas 2-3 fielder idhar-udhar kar do (In Test cricket, you have to change two or three fielders) as per the need of the bowler, and you don't need to change the field as per batters. So I feel captaincy in Tests is different. It's simple, in the sense that you get to know when a bowler is in good rhythm and when not."

Further, he stated that Test cricket is not as challenging as an ODI or T20I.. He even said that test cricket is not hectic; no batting order needs to shuffle in the format or look at the batting combination much—it's very simple.

He said,

"A lot of it is calculative, but I don't think it's as challenging as an ODI or T20I. In T20s, every ball is a challenge. The test format is comparatively not hectic. I have played with so many captains, so I have seen what it's like. You don't have to shuffle the batting order or look at the right-left batting combination much. It's simple."

Now it will be interesting to see how Team India and Jadeja will be performing in the second Test against England which will commence form July 2 at Birmingham.