Ravindra Jadeja shines on Ranji Trophy return, picks up 7 wickets in second innings against Tamil Nadu

Star India all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja picked up eight wickets on his return game for Saurashtra against Tamil Nadu in the ongoing Ranji Trophy group match in Chennai on Thursday. After ending the first innings with just one wicket to his name, Jadeja scalped seven wickets for 53 in the next innings, keeping his team alive in the race for the quarterfinal berth. As Saurashtra ended day 3 on 4-1, they need another 262 runs to win this match. The left-handed batter Jadeja, who scored just 15 runs in the first innings, needs to come up with an inspired performance with the bat, if needed, to help his team claim a victory on Friday.

Out since the Asia Cup in Dubai in August-September last year due to a knee injury, fit-again Jadeja returned to lead the Saurashtra side against Tamil Nadu in his first competitive match in five months. While he kept himself busy with personal stuff during his injury layoff, he told media ahead of the start of the match that attaining full fitness is his prime goal heading forward adding it’s only when he will feel 100% fit, he can deliver with both bat and ball.

After the end of this match in Chennai, the 34-year-old will report to the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru for an assessment test after which a report on his fitness levels will be prepared that will determine if he will be playing the first Test against Australia in Nagpur or not, starting on February 9th. Going by the results of that the team management will take on a call on Jadeja prior to the start of the pre-series camp on February 2nd.

Meanwhile, the upcoming marquee Border-Gavaskar series has a lot on stake as for India to qualify for the finals of the World Test Championship they will have to beat Australia by a considerable margin; or at least ensure they are not suffering any defeat that will further complicate their chances as then they will have to depend on results of other teams for them to reach the finals.

Here’s India’s squad for the first two Tests against Australia –

Rohit Sharma (Captain), KL Rahul (vice-captain), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KS Bharat (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), R. Ashwin, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat, Suryakumar Yadav