Ravindra Jadeja has made a perfect return to the Indian team after a lengthy injury layoff. The allrounder picked his 11th five-wicket haul in Tests on Thursday against Australia, before scoring his 18th half-century on Day 2 of the first Test against Australia in Nagpur on Friday. "It was (a) difficult (phase) as I have missed a lot of cricket in the last five months, missed important tournaments (Asia Cup and World T20). Rehabs are tough for players and even tougher is to keep the level of performance post rehab. You need that confidence and there are always doubts that (whether) post injury your performance will remain the same or not," he said on Thursday.
After his half-century on Friday, Jadeja once again celebrates with his trademark 'sword-play'Â with the bat.
Twitter users were happy after the talented star's perfect return to international cricket.
Talking about the first match of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, Skipper Rohit Sharma conjured one his most impressive Test hundreds under pressure against a quality Australian attack as India vaulted to a crucial 144-run lead in the series-opener after ending the day two at 321 for 7. Â Rohit (120) displayed class and composure of the highest order and in the process became the first Indian captain to have scored a century in all three formats.
While Rohit's ninth Test hundred is worth its weight in gold, Ravindra Jadeja's (66 not out) 18th half-century is also priceless. The all-rounder's knock will be equally important in the context of the game.
Jadeja once again showed his true worth by adding 61 runs for the sixth wicket with Rohit and another 81 runs for the unconquered eighth-wicket with Axar Patel (52 batting), who is also playing a fine hand.
It was a battle of attrition for Indian batters, especially Rohit and Jadeja with the home team putting on board 244 runs on the second day.
On a slow track where other batters found the run-scoring extremely difficult, the Indian captain was concentration-personified.
With PTI inputs
