Coach’s revelation of Jadeja’s injury is quite curious
Chandigarh, December 23
Ravi Shastri today revealed that Ravindra Jadeja missed the second Test in Perth due to an injury. This revelation has caused confusion. If he was injured, why was Jadeja named in the Indian 13 for the Perth Test? Moreover, Virat Kohli had said after the loss in Perth that they didn’t contemplate including a spinner in the XI after Ravichandran Ashwin was ruled out with an injury.
However, Shastri contradicted that view when he said that Jadeja was ruled out of the second Test due to an injury.
“The problem with Jaddu (Jadeja) is that he had taken an injection four days into coming to Australia, because of some stiffness in the shoulder and it took a while for that injection to settle down,” Shastri said today.
“So when you look at Perth, we felt that he was maybe 60-70 percent fit and that we didn’t want to risk that in Perth. If he was 80 percent fit here (MCG), he will play,” Shastri added.
It’s interesting that despite being up to only 70 percent fit, Jadeja was used as a substitute fielder in both Adelaide and Perth. And while fielding, he did not seem to be in any discomfort.
This raises the question: Was he really injured? If yes, why was he in the squad of 13, and then fielding without any obvious discomfort?
Australian spinner Nathan Lyon troubled India and was the decisive factor in their win at Perth. He was named the Man of the Match. Shastri and Kohli have faced criticism for failing to read the pitch and excluding Jadeja from the XI.
Is Shastri — God forbid! — trying to deflect criticism by belatedly revealing that Jadeja was injured and the team had no choice but to go in with a four-man pace attack? — TNS
