(AFP)-India skipper Rohit Sharma hailed Ravindra Jadeja as one of the world’s best allrounders after the left-hander stood out in the team’s crushing Test win over Sri Lanka on Sunday.
India won the first of the two Tests – Virat Kohli’s 100th five-day match and Rohit’s first as the long-format captain – inside three days by an innings and 222 runs in Mohali
Jadeja smashed an unbeaten 175 and claimed a match tally of nine wickets with his left-arm spin to be named player of the match, becoming the first male player in Test history to score 150+ runs and take nine wickets in a single Test.
Nobody has taken 10 wickets in a Test and made a score of 150+, but it was the sixth occurance of a male Test player making at least 150 and taking a five-wicket haul in an innings, and the first since Mushtaq Mohammad’s 201 and 5-49 against New Zealand in 1973
“To me he is one of the top allrounders,” Rohit said of Jadeja after the match.
“Look at the performances, to score 175 not out and take nine wickets in the game, he’s just upping his game every time we see him.”
Jadeja is one of just three players to have both more than 2000 Test runs averaging 30 or more and more than 200 Test wickets with an average below 25. The others are Imran Khan and Shaun Pollock.
Rohit said he is keen to utilise Jadeja’s batting more in the future.
“He’s very hungry, as you can see. That hunger is something that drives athletes to move forward.
“When I talk to him about certain things, he is very open-minded. He wants to take the responsibility, he wants to take the challenge.”
“The example was there in the T20 series against Sri Lanka. I just casually asked him if he would want to bat up the order, and he was open for it. This is why we asked him to go up in the first T20.
“As a captain, I want to use Jadeja a lot more with the bat.
“We all know his bowling. Everyone knows about his fielding. He brings so much balance to the team as well.
Jadeja, 33, is currently third on the ICC’s ranking of Test allrounders behind Ravichandran Ashwin and number one Jason Holder of the West Indies.
Bangladesh’s Shakib Al Hasan is fourth and England’s Ben Stokes sixth.
Coming in at No.7, Jadeja recorded a Test best and the second century of his career and put on marathon partnerships to steer India to 8-574 after they elected to bat first.
He put on 130 runs for the seventh wicket with Ashwin and then an unbeaten 103-run ninth-wicket stand with Mohammed Shami, who scored 20.
Jadeja has hit three triple centuries including a best of 331 for his state side Saurashtra while batting at No.4
He has played 58 Tests for India since his debut in 2012, scoring 2,370 runs at an average of 36.46. He has taken 241 wickets including 10 five-wicket hauls.
In the same match, Ashwin’s six wickets saw him pass Kapil Dev on India’s all-time Test wicket-taking list, putting him second behind only Anil Kumble.
“To me, he is already an all-time great,” Rohit said of Ashwin. “He has been playing cricket for the country for so many years, his performances have been so good over the years. He has given many match-winning performances.
