Ganesh Kendale
‘If Jaddu plays, I will bat for him all day, all night’
KANPUR: Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja don’t just hunt as a spin duo now, they are also a pair of fine allrounders who can more than hold their own with the bat. They have evolved as cricketers together on the dusty surfaces at home and shared the burden of finishing off matches with the ball and also engineering crucial counterattacks with the bat.
However, Jadeja’s feat of breaching the 300-Test wicket barrier here in Kanpur is a reminder of how understated he has been in India’s scheme of things.Often, his credentials are overshadowed by Ashwin’s tally of over 500 Test wickets.
They have often been portrayed as rivals for a spot in the XI whenever India travel overseas. “He (Jadeja) is the second left-arm spinner to 300 wickets. I think he has got 3000 runs. These are no mean achievements,” said Ashwin on his partnership with Jadeja. “The fact of the matter is, India is blessed to have two bowlers who can play in the same spot and are good enough.”
With the Australia tour coming up in less than two months, their place in the playing XI will be up for debate again. Going by selection trends in the last few overseas tours, Jadeja is the one more likely to pip Ashwin.
“It is a very simple at the moment. If he (Jadeja) plays, I will bat for him all day, all night. It doesn’t cross my head anymore at all. If he is the one that has to play, he is the one that has to play. And I have complete faith and I have got his back when he goes out there to play,” Ashwin said.
Ashwin, however, didn’t mind conceding that it did affect him some time ago. “It is just that sometimes when you miss out, you feel you are missing out. And nobody likes missing out. I might be lying if I said I didn’t. Because we all want to play. But it doesn’t (matter) anymore,” he said.
What helped Ashwin to have a flexible outlook was the success the Test team started having overseas.
“Going to another country, especially a country like Australia or England, and your team putting in an extraordinary performance and you winning a Test match, makes me an incredibly proud Indian. So, for me, putting a larger cause in front becomes the priority,” he said. “He (ex-coach Rahul Dravid) used to say when you finish, you will remember the moments and celebrations, not the numbers.”
