Gargi Raut
After the historic Test win at Edgbaston, Lord’s was supposed to be another chapter in a fairytale comeback story. At Edgbaston, India stunned England with a dominating all-round performance soaked in intent. Suddenly, the young and ‘inexperienced’ team that the fans had written off was the toast of the cricketing world. But as quickly as the cheers and the praise came, it vanished. After the loss at Lord’s, the knives came out. And one man has borne the brunt of the criticism, Ravindra Jadeja.
By the end of Day 5, one of India’s most experienced all-rounders, Jadeja, was left to chase down 63 runs against all odds. Having lost Rishabh Pant and KL Rahul early on in the day, and Nitish Kumar Reddy and Washington Sundar’s wickets following closely behind, Jadeja was the lone man standing. And soon, after the loss, the all-rounder was slammed online for “not scoring fast enough.”
The commentary ranges from frustration to memes to downright abuse, and much of it is ignoring the obvious truth: Jadeja was quite literally the last man standing in a tactical deadlock. The dressing room had emptied and the Lord’s balcony of the Indian dressing room looked grim as ever. At the other end was Ben Stokes, who opened the field up almost entirely, spreading fielders to protect boundaries while inviting Jadeja to take risks. There was no safe release shot left for Jadeja to hit without seriously risking his wicket.
At that point, every shot would find a fielder at the boundary and anything aerial meant danger. And if Jadeja had gotten out trying to go over the top, the same fans slamming him now would have called him selfish or brainless or worse. Stokes’ field, like always, was a calculative trap and Jadeja knew it.
Instead, Jadeja stayed at the crease. He kept the game alive and made sure India didn’t fold cheaply, taking the game down to 23 runs to win, an outcome that had looked impossible an hour earlier. After the wickets of Reddy and Sundar, the professionals in the media centre had thought that it was a matter of another 20 mins and the game would be over. But Jadeja proved us all wrong, he rotated the strike whenever he could. With only Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj left, both of whom not exactly known for their batting prowess, he was forced to shield them and take the strike for as long as he could.
What is the most disheartening thing is how quickly the Indian cricket fandom turned against Jadeja. After the loss in Leeds, the predictions, tweets and comments came ripping in, “India will lose the series 5-0”, “whitewash loading” and more. Then after the Edgbaston Test, the same voices said, “young India has arrived.”.
Again, a loss later, suddenly everyone has turned into a selector again, hindsight is a weapon and Jadeja is now the scapegoat. It is perhaps not new, there has always been a fickleness or even theatrics of extremes when it comes to the Indian cricket fan. You never know when yesterday’s hero will turn into today’s villain. The hate aside, if this young team, led by a 25-year-old Shubman Gill is to go anywhere, it needs more players like Jadeja.
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