Australia vs India: Unfit Ravindra Jadeja doubtful for third Test
He didn't play the Perth Test despite being the part of the 13-man squad.
Team India’s injury woes continue to haunt them in the ongoing Test series against Australia. While the second Test saw Ravi Ashwin and Rohit Sharma missing out and Prithvi Shaw being ruled out of the series, now the left-handed all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja’s fitness is under the scanner. He is suffering from a certain shoulder injury it seems and according to the coach Ravi Shastri, he will also be assessed ahead of the game.
Shastri also went on to say that Jadeja wasn’t 100 percent fit in Perth and possibly that led them to go with an all-pace attack. “When you look at Perth, we felt (Jadeja) was about 70 to 80 percent fit and we didn’t want to risk that in Perth. He still felt stiff in the shoulder when he came here and he was injected again, and it takes time to settle,” the head coach said while speaking to the reporters on Sunday.
What about Ashwin?
India might well have to go into the Melbourne Test without two of their best spinners again. While Ravindra Jadeja is still not fit, Ravi Ashwin’s will have pass the fitness test ahead of the third game. He was ruled out of the second Test due to abdominal strain after bowling close to 53 overs in the second innings in Adelaide.
In the worst case, the visitors have Kuldeep Yadav as an option but thw way he fared in England might raise a few doubts. Having said that, the chinaman bowler made his debut against the same team back home in the fourth Test and played a decisive role in winning the game for India.
The next couple of days are going to be crucial for the tourists thanks to a lot of fitness concerns. But Kuldeep’s inclusion after Perth blunder can’t be be ruled out with Hanuma Vihari as a part-time bowling option.
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