‘Ravindra Jadeja gave a different dimension’ – Pragyan Ojha on his struggles of prolonging his career for Team India

Pragyan Ojha promised a whole lot after making his debut for Team India against Bangladesh in the 2008 Asia Cup. In the very next year, he forayed into T20I and Test cricket as well. But it was since the end of 2013 when the Orissa-born went out of contention for national selection. One of the reasons behind the same which the 33-year-old Ojha feels is Ravindra Jadeja’s emergence.

Jadeja made his debut back in 2009 against Sri Lanka in Colombo and currently, he is one of the stalwarts for India across formats. Having notched 439 international wickets in his career, the Saurashtra cricketer has made a name for himself.

There are certain things that can’t be understood: Pragyan Ojha

In the last few years, his batting has also grown leaps and bounds due to skipper Virat Kohli has shown greater faith in him. Ojha reckons that Jadeja added a new dimension to the team, hailing his all-round prowess.

“Maybe, when Jaddu [Jadeja] came into the team, he gave the team a different dimension. He bowled very well, he was a good batsman as well, he contributes with the bat even now. Fielding he is one of the best in the world. Maybe, because of the other dimension, I might have fallen back a bit,” Ojha was quoted as saying in Sports Tak.

Ojha had a decent record for Hyderabad, but he turned out for Bengal in 2015 after his former team was relegated. He also thanked Sourav Ganguly, the current BCCI president, for lending him the adequate support. But despite all his efforts, he couldn’t stake his claim back in the national side.

“There are certain things that can’t be understood. I have thought about it (abrupt end to Test career) a lot of times. When Hyderabad got relegated, I moved to Bengal to play cricket because I wanted to play in the elite group. When you want to make a comeback, you have to play elite cricket,” he added.

On February 2020, Ojha finally called time on his career. In 24 Tests, 18 ODIs and six T20Is, the left-arm spinner picked up 113, 21 and 10 wickets respectively.