There was nothing in the wicket: Jadeja

By Paritosh Pramanik
NAGPUR, Nov 24

DESPITE the wicket looking green, there was hardly anything for the bowlers, said Ravindra Jadeja, who along with Ravichandra Ashwin, took seven wickets between them to floor Sri Lanka on the first day of the second Test at Jamtha.
Jadeja said though he was happy to bowl so many overs he was critical of the Jamtha track, which is always under the scanner, saying that there was nothing in the wicket. Yet the bowlers managed to get 10 first innings wicket.
“I am happy that I got to bowl so many overs but there was no help from the wicket and we have to bowl in the right areas. We tried to restrict Sri Lankans and decided not give them easy boundaries. We were just doing supporting role as the fast bowlers were doing great job in first session,” said Jadeja, who took three wickets for 56 runs.
When asked whether the pacers did not get any help from the wicket, the spinner said, “The bowlers got too much help at Kolkata that’s why it looked that they did not get help from the track. The wicket had grass but the bounce and swing was not there which we got at Kolkata. Both the seamers bowled well and did not give much runs in the beginning,” said Jadeja as he praised Ishant Sharma and Umesh Yadav.
Ashwin bowled round the wicket quite a few overs and Jadeja said they tried to do something different, as there was no assistance from the track. “As I said there was nothing in the wicket. We thought it would be good to try something new. That is why Ashwin bowled round the wicket. We wanted to try to 
create a chance. It doesn’t 
matter whether you are bowling round the wicket or over the wicket till it’s helping you,” Jadeja said.
When asked if he was the captain, then who he would have chosen between him and Ashwin in the playing XI for South Africa Tests, Jadeja replied: “Yeh bhi koi puchne ki baat hain (Is this a question that you even need to ask?),”.
“If I am the captain, I will not even give the ball to anyone. I will keep bowling from one end.”
Then on a serious note, he said, “It all depends on team’s balance and what it wants. At times on overseas tours, we assess if there are more left-handers or right-handers in the opposition and accordingly, the team’s composition is set.”