Pujara Defends Jadeja Following Lord's Test Criticism

Following India's narrow loss to England in the third Test by 22 runs at Lord's cricket fans and pundits started laying the blame on Ravindra Jadeja for his sluggish batting strategy on the last day. In spite of Jadeja remaining unbeaten on 61 runs from 181 balls and giving his best to push India past the line some of the former Indian cricket greats such as Sunil Gavaskar Anil Kumble Ravichandran Ashwin and Sourav Ganguly also believed that Jadeja could have been more aggressive in batting particularly while facing a spinner like Shoaib Bashir. But Cheteshwar Pujara did not concur with the criticism whatsoever and emerged to strongly defend Jadeja's performance stating he played a smart and gutsy innings in extremely tough conditions.

Pujara himself having played numerous gritty knocks for India felt Jadeja made the correct decision under pressure. In his opinion the pitch had slowed and the ball had become soft so it was extremely hard to score at a rapid pace. He noted that Jadeja likely thought that if the tailenders like Jasprit Bumrah or Mohammed Siraj could resist for a while he could play more aggressively as they approached the target. Rather than losing his wicket he decided to bat sensibly and calmly attempting to retain the strike and save the lower order from getting hit with too many balls.

Pujara thought that rotating the strike late in the over was the perfect strategy in the current match situation. He also said that even scoring boundaries down the ground was difficult on that pitch because of the state of the ball. While he did say Jadeja may have attempted to score in the region of mid-off and cover he conceded it wasn't an easy feat to achieve given the type of surface they were playing on. For him Jadeja's innings was more of a case of survival and attempting to get India nearer the target without exposing the tail too early.

What Pujara was more impressed with was the way Jadeja has developed as a batsman in the last five years. He told that Jadeja has put in a lot of effort particularly playing in foreign conditions. As compared to the past when Jadeja could not make big scores out of his starts in Tests he is now more consistent and confident. Pujara opined that a player cannot make triple hundreds in domestic cricket without talent and Jadeja has always possessed it. The only thing for him was to get that kind of form in international cricket and in recent years he has done so.

Pujara has played with Jadeja for a long time including their association in domestic cricket for Saurashtra and has witnessed Jadeja's development firsthand. It's his opinion that Jadeja is now as much at ease playing spin as seam which was a problem for him earlier in his career. In the good old days Jadeja was regarded more of a capable player against the spin bowling but now he has added the skills and temperament to play pace too particularly in difficult venues like England. This transformation shows how serious Jadeja has been about improving his game and becoming a complete cricketer.

It is not easy to play in England especially on the final day of a Test match when the pitch behaves differently and pressure is extremely high. Jadeja’s calm and composed effort while batting with the tail deserves respect not criticism. Even England players enjoyed his fighting capability and how he attempted to take India's hopes up to the last moment. But rather than getting appreciation from all people Jadeja had to hear people comment on how he had not attacked enough something which Pujara did not agree with.

Pujara was taken aback to see so much negativity over Jadeja's performance. He also thought that it was not right to target him when the match was lost because of a team effort rather than one man's strategy. In his view if the other members of the batting line-up had given Jadeja some more support the outcome could have been different. Censuring a man who remained unbeaten and battled till the end did not look fair to him.

Cheteshwar Pujara's statement brings back to everyone's memory how crucial it is to know the context of a match before critiquing a player's performance. Ravindra Jadeja has been India's most valuable player across all genres and his development in Test cricket has been incredible. Playing sensibly doesn't equate to playing badly. Sometimes in Test cricket particularly in overseas conditions a defensive strategy is the only means of survival and providing the team with a hope. Jadeja did just that and a bit more with his innings at Lord's and Pujara was absolutely right in feeling that rather than slamming him Jadeja deserved to be appreciated for his brave and determined performance.

This episode also brings out the fact that sports personalities are usually subjected to unjust criticism even when they do the best they can. Though legends of the game are free to have their say, players like Pujara who are still in the midst of action present a fresh and more objective perspective. Jadeja's performance may not have been the finisher for India but it definitely reflected the kind of fight and responsibility that he brings to the team. Thanks to the candid and robust words of Pujara fans now have another angle to view that knock and appreciate the effort that went into it.