Injured Jadeja uncertain for Melbourne Test

Injured Jadeja uncertain for Melbourne Test: The injured all-rounder is doubtful for the Boxing day Test to be played from December 26.

In which has come as a significant blow to the Indian cricket team down under, all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja has been injured and is doubtful for the third Test of the series to be played from December 26 at Melbourne.

The 30-year old cricketer has become the third Indian cricketer (after middle-order batsman Rohit Sharma and off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin) to get injured during the tour. A near-fact which adds suspense to the whole story is that Jadeja is supposed to be injured even before he flew to Australia. Despite that, he was included in the 13-member squad ahead of the Perth Test.

While speaking to the media in Melbourne, India coach Ravi Shastri updated the press on Jadeja’s injury. “When you are millions of miles away, it is very easy to fire blanks,” Shastri replied to selection critics who were at odds with India playing four specialist fast bowlers in the second Test.

“Problem with Jaddu was that he had taken an injection four days into coming to Australia because of some stiffness in his shoulder, and it took a while for that injection to settle down. So when you look at Perth, we felt he was about 70-80% fit, and we didn’t want to risk that in Perth. If he is 80% here, he will play, that’s the answer,” Shastri was quoted as saying on Jadeja’s availability.

“When he [Jadeja] came here, he felt some stiffness, and he felt that in India as well but he played domestic cricket after that. Still felt stiff in the shoulder, and he was injected again and it takes time to settle. It has taken longer than we expected, and we wanted to be careful. Last thing you want is someone breaking down after five-ten overs, and then we are stuck for players to pick for Melbourne and Sydney,” he added.

With captain Virat Kohli having said that India would have played four fast bowlers in Perth irrespective of the fitness of the spinners and now Shastri commenting of the otherwise, it speaks highly about the level of indecision in the Indian team.

Furthermore, India had struggled with playing a not-fully fit Ashwin in the England Test series. In something which had happened earlier this year, why would the team management risk playing an 80% fit Jadeja in Melbourne? What is the point of carrying a mammoth 19-member squad (which includes another spinner in Kuldeep Yadav) if unfit players are to be given the go.

Being asked about Rohit Sharma and Ashwin, Shastri was of the opinion that both look good at this point in time but will be assessed ahead of the third match.

“It gives you that option but he has not played much first-class cricket. He has just played one game after injury so we have to be very careful before we actually decide whether he plays or not,” Shastri said about all-rounder Hardik Pandya, who was called-up midway in the series.

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