BRISBANE: KL Rahul heaped praise on all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja for his defiant knock which helped India avoid the follow-on in the ongoing third Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) against Australia on Tuesday.
Following skipper Rohit Sharma’s early dismissal, Rahul and Jadeja stitched a 67-run partnership for the sixth wicket, which played a pivotal role in avoiding the follow-on.
“He was brilliant today and he has been brilliant for us batting down the order for many, many years. That’s what we expect of Jadeja,” said Rahul.
“Really happy that, firstly, I could stitch a partnership with him when he came in. It was really needed at that stage. Then he went on to score 70-80 runs with the tail, every run today was crucial for us to get past that follow-on firstly, and to see how many runs we could put on the board, and he made that possible.”
Continuing his praise for Jadeja, Rahul asserted that while Jadeja's bowling is rightly highlighted, his batting skills often go unnoticed.
“Often it’s only Jadeja’s bowling that’s spoken about but I think he’s been a great performer even with the bat. He has a solid technique and I enjoy batting with him. I enjoy watching him train. He seems to have his game plan really simple and sorted,” Rahul said.
Jadeja’s grit eventually ended in the 66th over of India’s innings when Australia’s skipper Pat Cummins outfoxed him with a well-directed bouncer. The left-handed batter scored an important 77 runs from 123 deliveries.
