Australia struggled to get a hold of the Indian spinners as Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin combined to lethal effect as they led India to a memorable win over Pat Cummins’ side in the first Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2023.
Both Jadeja and Ashwin picked up five wickets each during the match, while Jadeja also contributed with the bat in the first innings. In the lead-up to the four-match Test series, Australian batters were worried about Ashwin a lot more than Jadeja.
The visitors had accused the Indian side of ‘doctoring’ the pitch at the VCA Stadium in Nagpur, and then even went on hire a ‘duplicate’ of Ashwin to prepare for his tricky spin deliveries.
However, Jadeja proved to be the wrecker-in-chief for the Aussies in their first inning as the Indian all-rounder picked up five wickets in his first international match after being sidelined for a long time through injury.
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He would also go on to play a memorable 70-run knock, helping his side reach a total of 400 runs in reply to Australia’s 177.
Former Australian skipper Ricky Ponting has revealed that he already knew that the visitors would be in for a ‘nightmare’ after he saw Jadeja’s return to the domestic circuit with Saurashtra.
The 34-year-old marked his return to the cricket field in some style as he picked up eight wickets, seven of which came in the second innings of the Ranji Trophy clash against Tamil Nadu. Ponting revealed that he had predicted that Jadeja would give the Australian side a tough time.
Speaking on the ICC Review, Ponting recalled, “I had seen his return to first-class cricket last week and he got some 11 wickets or something. As soon as I saw that I knew Aussies were in for a nightmare.”
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He further dissected how it’s very difficult to tackle Jadeja as a bowler, due to his strength of bowling in the stump line.
“Because of how he [Jadeja] bowls on those sort of wickets – the pace that he bowls, the line that he bowls to right-handers in particular, where he is pitching the ball on the stumps all the time, and one would turn and one will slide on, like we saw, with the dismissal of Steven Smith today. I mean they’re two identical deliveries,” stated the Australian legend.
Ponting added, “One just happened to turn and the other one went straight on and went back through the gate and bowled him.”
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The former Australian skipper who tasted massive success in his playing career also made a massive prediction saying that Jadeja may finish as the leading wicket-taker of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2023.
“As the series goes on, if his body holds up and he can get through the four Test matches, I think he could very well be the leading wicket-taker in this entire series,” said Ponting.
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