Indian all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja joined the likes of Kapil Dev and Ravichandran Ashwin after his unbeaten run on Day 1 of the third Test in Rajkot. India finished Day 1 at 326/5 after 86 overs.
Ravindra Jadeja (110*) scored his fourth Test ton and Rohit Sharma (131) scored his 11th Test ton as the duo added a 204-run stand for the fourth wicket. This happened after India won the toss and opted to bat first.
India were 33/3 when the duo came together, got India out of trouble and brought the hosts back into the game. Jajdeja added two crucial stands, first with Rohit and then with debutant Sarfaraz Khan, who scored 62 off 66 balls on his Test debut. The duo added a stand of 77 runs and Sarfaraz scored 62 of them at a fast pace.
Jadeja thus became the third Indian player to score 3000 runs and take 250 Test wickets. Former Indian captain Kapil Dev had taken 424 Test wickets and scored 5248 runs in his Test career. Ashwin has 499 wickets and 3271. Jadeja is the new entrant in this club and crossed 3000 Test runs during his spell to go along with his 280 wickets in the format.
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Indian players with a double of 3,000 runs and 250 wickets in Tests
Kapil Dev (5248 runs, 434 wickets)
Ravichandran Ashwin (3271 runs, 499 wickets)
Ravindra Jadeja (3003 runs, 280 wickets)
Ravindra Jadeja scored his fourth Test ton
Jadeja is one of the four changes India made to their XI. The all-rounder, who missed the second test due to a hamstring injury, returned to the lineup. Among other possibilities were two new debutants, Sarfaraz Khan and Dhruv Jurel, of being picked in the XI. While Sarfaraz replaced Shreyas Iyer, Jurel replaced KS Bharat. Mohammed Siraj replaced Mukesh Kumar in the XI and Jasprit Bumrah was the other seamer.
For England, there were only changes to their XI when Mark Wood replaced Shoaib Bashir in the XI. The move turned out to be a good one as it saw three of the five wickets fall on the day, including Rohit Sharma’s wicket. James Anderson, who has 695 Test wickets, bowled 19 overs for 51 runs but remained wicketless. It was his economical delivery from one end that allowed Wood to take wickets from the other end.
Paul Collingwood, England’s interim head coach, spoke to TNT Sports about the day’s game from England’s point of view. He credited the Indian team for fighting back after England got early wickets. The exit of Sarfaraz Khan at the end of the last session meant that the two teams shared the day to some extent.
“It’s been a good day of Test cricket. We got some early wickets but India fought back. They have some very skilled hitters…the guys worked hard all day. We’ll find out tomorrow if we can get some early wickets and how good the day has been. [Wood] He deserves it. Sometimes he doesn’t get the rewards, but today he did. The initial spell from him was fantastic. Jaiswal is a big wicket with the form he is in. He is very happy with the exhaustion,” Collingwood said.
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