India’s former all-rounder and 1983 World Cup winner Balwinder Singh Sandhu offered a surprising perspective on Ravindra Jadeja’s 61 not out innings at the Lord’s. He suggested that the all-rounder was very much under-pressure while batting in lower order. Sandhu observed that Jadeja’s calm nature during such a situation and his slow partnership with Jasprit Bumrah might have led to a lapse in judgement.
“Coming to the final moments, Ravindra Jadeja is someone I’ve known since his U-19 days at the National Cricket Academy. Even back then, he showed maturity beyond his age. He’s a smart cricketer, calm under pressure, but this time, maybe the fear of failing, or the pressure of not trusting the tail, got the better of him,” Sandhu wrote in his column for Mid-day.
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Balwinder praised Jadeja’s calmness and recalled his days at the National Cricket Academy during his U-19 years and applauded his maturity back then. But he felt that during the under pressure situation, his too much precaution and fear of failure might have stopped Jadeja from trusting Bumrah.
“If only he had trusted Jasprit Bumrah a bit more – especially when Bumrah was defending so well – and resisted taking that single off the fourth ball to retain strike. Had he backed himself to finish it in those last two balls, with the field up, it was a perfect moment to go for the boundary.”
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In the second innings of third Test, India witnessed a complete batting collapse and the team was at a score of 112/8 when Jadeja came into play. He made very crucial partnerships with Nitish Kumar Reddy, Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj but his efforts were in vain as Siraj was unluckily bowled out which led to England win by 22 runs.
