Ravindra Jadeja needs to practice a little more against spin: Sanjay Manjrekar

Ravindra Jadeja worked hard to get himself set at the crease on Day 3 of the ongoing Boxing Day Test between India and Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) on Saturday, December 28. However, he was undone by a brilliant piece of bowling from Nathan Lyon.

In the 65th over of the Indian innings, Lyon got a ball to come back in with the arm from around the wicket. Jadeja was expecting the ball to turn away from him and was rushed by the skidiness of the delivery. He was caught in no man's land as the ball rapped him on his back leg. The umpire was quick to give him out. The all-rounder did take the DRS but it returned with umpire's call on hitting.

This wasn't the first time Lyon troubled Jadeja with his guile. The latter had been looking fidgety against the Aussie spinner and the dismissal seemed inevitable. Jadeja departed after scoring 17 off 51 balls.

Sanjay Manjrekar noted that Jadeja was at ease against the pacers. However, the cricketer-turned-commentator suggested that the Saurashtra player needs to work on his batting against the spinners.

"He played the fast bowlers a lot and played them very well. He didn't make even a slight mistake against the fast bowlers. However, once Nathan Lyon came, he was expecting off-spin, that the ball would turn. His bat came for the off-spin and the ball was not turning at all. So he played with that mindset," Manjrekar said while speaking to Star Sports.

"It seems like Jadeja needs to practice a little more against spin because he is looking absolutely comfortable against seam. He used to play very well against spin earlier but it happens that when you play overseas, you start playing fast bowling well and your focus is slightly removed from spin. If only fast bowlers had been there, Jadeja would have played a big knock," he added.

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India finished Day 3 at 358/9 after Nitish Kumar Reddy scored his maiden international century. The tourists are 116 runs behind Australia's first innings score. Meanwhile, Day 4 will start 30 minutes earlier than normal to compensate for the overs that were lost due to rain on Saturday.