India captain Rohit Sharma said that all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja is someone who is extremely hungry to score runs and wants to do well for the team whenever he steps on the field. Jadeja stamped his class with both bat and ball in the first Test against Sri Lanka at the IS Bindra PCA Stadium, scoring an unbeaten 175 and becoming the ‘Player of the Match’ in the match hall of 9/87. India won by innings. and 222 runs.
“He’s one of the top. Look at the performance: scoring an unbeaten 175 to take nine wickets in the game; every time you see him he’s upping his game. In the past when we played in India, His contribution with the bat and taking those crucial wickets, he adds a lot to his game every time he plays.”
“He is very hungry; As you can see hunger drives athletes to move forward and I see that clearly in Jadeja. He is very hungry for success, quite hungry to score runs and do well for the team,” Sharma said in the virtual post-match press conference.
Sharma further said that he wants to maximize Jadeja’s batting abilities. “When I talk about some skinny guy, he is very open-minded and wants to take on responsibilities and challenges. An example of this was in the T20I against Sri Lanka. casually asked him if he could bat down the order. will be ready; He was up for it, so we asked him to bat down the order.
“As a captain, I want to make the most of Jadeja with the bat. We all know about his bowling and we all know about his fielding. I want to use his batting more in future and I hope to get this opportunity as we have a lot of young players that we need to see. But Jadeja is right there in my mind. He is good in all three aspects of the game; Gives a lot to the team and also gives balance. He’s definitely one of the top four.”
Talking about India’s overall performance in the match, Sharma believes it was an almost flawless, dominating performance from the hosts. “I feel the same way; you can say so. I have been part of many Test matches in India where the performance has been the same where we have scored big runs and have bundled up two innings of the opposition and shift the innings to the left. You can definitely say that this is one of them.”
“I thought it was a perfect game for us as a team. We bowled and batted well; I thought we could take our chances on the field, except for a second or two. It happens and that’s it. That’s where I think we just need to accelerate a little bit more and make sure we’re at 1105 when we go on the field.”
Sharma also lauded Ravichandran Ashwin for becoming the second highest wicket-taker for India in Test cricket, surpassing legendary all-rounder Kapil Dev’s 434 wickets. He said, ‘Achieving this feat is a big deal in his cricket career. When you grow up wanting to play Test cricket, you don’t dream about all these things. Crossing it is a big achievement on their part.”
“I have been watching Ashwin for a long time and every time I see him, he gets better and better. Ashwin is one of those kind of players who always believe in his ability. He is more for himself. Then whatever one wants to achieve for the team, play a crucial innings and get us a great partnership with Jadeja. Every time I see him, I feel he keeps getting better and better.”
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