Slow left-arm Ravindra Jadeja and off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin have been two brilliant bowlers for India this home season. The ongoing second Test match between India and Australia in Bengaluru witnessed Jadeja finishing with six wickets, but people on Twitter were not able to understand why Virat Kohli under-bowled him in the first innings.
Watch India vs Australia second Test
Even on the opening hours of Day 3, it was Ishant Sharma and Ashwin, who opened the bowling for India. It might have been Kohli's ploy to keep a pacer and spin combination. However, it did not prove to be right as it was only after Jadeja was introduced that the Australia batsmen were all out with the slow-left arm taking the last three wickets in a hurry. Had Jadeja been used early on in Day 3, Australia might have been dismissed quickly.
One look at the scorecard, and Jadeja has bowled the least number of overs (21.4) compared to the rest including seamers, as Ishant Sharma bowled 27 overs and Umesh Yadav with 24.
Though one understands that the seamers were brilliant for India and they posed serious questions, Ishant and Umesh were unlucky and could not bag many wickets. Still, Jadeja was not bowled much by Kohli, who relied on his number one spinner Ashwin as the Chennai man bowled 49 overs for two wickets.
It is not easy to understand Kohli's logic behind this move -- not using Jadeja much. With India in desperate need of wickets, a captain should always look at bowlers, who has been taking most wickets and give him the ball as he, in this case Jadeja, must have been confident of taking more wickets.
Though this might have been a one-off mistake by Kohli to under-bowl Jadeja in Bengaluru, one hopes that captain will not commit the same error again in the second innings.
6 wickets for Jadeja.
— Pritam Sharma (@VanDiablo) March 6, 2017
Really poor from Kohli though, apparently Jadeja bowled the least overs yesterday. #INDvsAUS
So the big question of test would be @imjadeja being the least bowled bowler , Nation wants to know @imVkohli . #jadeja #INDvsAUS
— Arunesh Narayan (@narayanarunesh) March 6, 2017
@imVkohli captaincy skills are questionable.. why didn't he use #Jadeja as much as he used other bowlers? Has sledging cost us this game?
— Vivek (@vsimbhu) March 6, 2017
So Jadeja only bowled 22 overs but took 6-63, Kholi better make up for his poor decisions with the bat
— Matt H (@SportsTrader33) March 6, 2017
Virat Kohli tried his best to make Ashwin the hero but Jadeja turned out to be the one. #INDvsAUS
— Retweeter (@Nikvad) March 6, 2017
Jadeja 6 wickets from 22 overs, Ashwin 2 wickets from 49 overs. Horrible bowler rotation and captaincy by Kholi. #cricket #INDvsAUS
— David Luke (@Vainchy) March 6, 2017
Why Jadeja was not given enough overs will be a question haunting @imVkohli for a long time. #INDvsAUS #BengaluruTest
— Jaideep Muthiyan (@jaideepvm) March 6, 2017
The fact that Jadeja was the most underbowled bowler shows how unfit Virat Kohli is as a captain...
— Sameer Kulkarni (@SomeMereKul) March 6, 2017
@robelinda2 Aus will win by an innings. No need for you to worry bro. Jadeja our best bowler got the least overs, Kohli has gone mental
— Varun Singh (@varun927) March 6, 2017