Shastri Comes Down Hard On Jadeja: 'If He Had Even 40% Of Stokes' Belief...'

News18

22-07-2025

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India lost to England by 22 runs in the third Test at Lord's. Jadeja's unbeaten 61 and partnerships showed resilience but fell short. Shastri criticised Jadeja's cautious approach.
India suffered a heartbreaking loss to England at Lord's in the third Test of the five-match series for the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy.
Despite putting up a brave fight, India fell short by 22 runs when the ball off Mohammed Siraj's bat trickled onto the stumps. From being down at 112/8, at a time when the match seemed destined to finish inside the first session, India pushed their total to 172, showcasing the resilience of their lower order – Ravindra Jadeja, Jasprit Bumrah, and Mohammed Siraj.
Jadeja held up one end and formed crucial partnerships – 35 runs with Nitish Reddy, 30 with Jasprit Bumrah, and another 23 with Siraj. These efforts at one point raised hopes of an India win, which had seemed unlikely until a couple of hours prior. Jadeja remained unbeaten on 61 off 181 deliveries; however, despite his best efforts, his innings divided opinions. Jadeja carefully rotated the strike, giving the fourth and fifth balls of the over to his tail-end partners, but some, including Ravi Shastri, felt he could have attacked more.
'I thought the time was before lunch, when Nitish Reddy and Jadeja were batting. One of the two should have gone for it. Because the field was up. The ball was a little harder. Once it got soft, you knew there would be one delivery with your name written on it. At some stage, I thought they could have taken more chances, and brought that deficit down to about 40, and then play the way they did," Shastri was quoted as saying on The Overlap Podcast.
Jadeja's knock drew parallels with the extraordinary innings that England captain Ben Stokes played against Australia in Headingley during the 2019 Ashes. Stokes single-handedly led England to victory, adding 101 runs with the last three wickets, switching to beast mode and smashing the Australian bowlers en route to finishing 135 not out. Jadeja is not a big striker of the ball like Stokes, but Shastri pointed out that if he had more belief in his batting, he would have been an even bigger match-winner for India.
'If Jadeja has even 40 per cent of the belief of Stokes, he will win you more matches. Because there is no doubt about his talent. It's just that he has to go and take charge. If he believes he can take charge, he can do it. He's got three triple-hundreds in First-Class cricket. It took him a long time. Three only. And it took him ages to realise that he has batting potential," added the former India head coach.
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