Senior all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja says that it is unfair to judge the current Indian team on the basis of one or two defeats after consistent good performances at home and abroad in the last three years.
Jadeja, who was adjudged ‘Player of the Match’ for his 3/15 against Scotland, was asked in the context of his skipper Virat Kohli’s assertion that the team wasn’t “brave enough” against New Zealand during their second game which they lost by eight wickets.
“If you look at it that way, then in last two to three years, we have played some really good cricket, whether it’s in India or overseas. So it’s not fair to judge us on basis of one or two games,” Jadeja said after India’s 8-wicket win over Scotland.
“In T20 cricket, any team can have an odd bad game or two but you can’t think too much about those defeats. You have to move on and think about the opportunities ahead. We will take the positives from those two games and look to play well in future games,” he added.
He admitted that in the ongoing T20 World Cup, dew has become a game-changer and often the same team that looks disoriented while batting in the first innings is looking like a different team when batting second.
A case in point was India’s chase of 86 in just 6.3 overs on Friday night.
“In first innings of these games, the ball is stopping and gripping a bit off the surface. If you bat in the second innings, dew makes the track flat and batters then find it very easy.
“When you are batting first on these tracks, we are not getting the starts we are used to and when the start is a poor one, it becomes difficult to comeback in middle overs. For that, winning toss becomes important and as then you can opt to bat second.”
Even after two defeats and while staring at the exit door, Indian team didn’t press the panic button, asserted its senior member.
“We didn’t press the panic button because as I said earlier, you will have a few bad matches in T20s and specially in these conditions toss has become important bas dew is becoming a game-changer. If the team that bats first in one game gets to chase in another, you can see the difference,
“Dew is making it seem as if the first team to bat is playing on a different surface as to the chasing team.”
He ended the press conference on a cheeky note when a scribe asked, “what if New Zealand beat Afghanistan? What would you do?”
“Then we will pack our bags and go home. What else will be left then,” he smiled.
Here are Excerpts from Jadeja’s press conference:
Q. Today India fielded three spinners; when India is playing multiple spinners, how does your role change specifically?
RAVINDRA JADEJA: My role was the same. I look to take wickets in middle overs, and whenever I get an opportunity try and bowl like how I used to bowl. Just because we are playing against Scotland we used a simple basic plan.
Q. Just like when you know you’re going to restrict your opposition to a low score, how do you approach it as a bowling group because you have to be patient because there’s a chance you might lose the patience, as well. Talk about the plan as a bowling group in a game like this.
RAVINDRA JADEJA: I think the way we look to bowl in good areas because the ball was gripping, old ball was turning, old ball was spinning. So I think the key was to bowl in the right areas as a spinner, as a fast bowler, so yeah, we were looking to bowl in good areas and this wicket was doing the job.
With PTI inputs
Transcript courtesy: ICC Business Corporation FZ LLC 2020 via Online Media Zone.
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