Parvez Rasool in awe with Jadeja's knock calls him outstanding

Ravindra Jadeja has of late been indirectly tagged a long-form specialist. He last featured in the Indian team during the Test series against Sri Lanka and since then has been ‘rested’ for the ODI and T20I series in Lanka, both the limited-overs series against the touring Australian team and isn’t a part of the ODI team that will face New Zealand either. This gave Jadeja an opportunity to don the whites for his domestic side Saurashtra.

In the first match that he played this season, the left-hander was severe on the Jammu & Kashmir bowlers. He walked in when the team was 59/3 and two big names in the batting line-up skipper Cheteshwar Pujara and Robin Uthappa were back in the hut. Jaddu stitched a 281-run stand with wicketkeeper-batsman Sheldon Jackson and scored his 5th double ton in first-class cricket with three of them being triples.

Jadeja scored 201 runs from 313 balls and his innings was studded with 23 boundaries and two sixes. Opposition skipper Parvez Rasool an all-rounder himself termed his knock “outstanding.”

Knock of a top-order batter

He said that though the wicket in Rajkot is flat but credit to Jadeja for the way he played and it appeared to be the knock of a top-order batter. “The Rajkot wicket is a bit on the flatter side, but Jadeja was outstanding. He batted really well. Even Sheldon Jackson (181) played aggressively, but Jadeja performed like a top-order batsman,” Rasool told Sportstar in a chat.

Detailing the impact of the innings the off-spinner mentioned that Jaddu was aggressive and made most of the mistakes J&K bowlers committed. “He was aggressive from the start. We went out of our skin to get him out. But as we tried and there were a few loose balls, he converted them all into boundaries. It was a tremendous knock,” he said.

When asked about Jadeja’s exclusion from the Indian limited-overs team, he mentioned that he has no words to describe how good the Saurashtra southpaw is and that it is the selectors call on the players they pick.

“It is the selectors’ call. But as a player, I have no words to describe him; he represented India so many times and won so many matches; I think the selectors are taking a note of his performance,” Rasool further added.