INDIA TOUR OF AUSTRALIA, 2018-19

Questions abound as Shastri reveals Jadeja's lack of fitness

by Bharat Sundaresan • Published on

According to Ravi Shastri, Jadeja was only 70-80% fit for the Perth Test © Getty

Not many had questioned Ravindra Jadeja's exclusion from the playing XI for the Perth Test last week. Not many had even considered him as a viable selection, including Virat Kohli based on what he would say about his impressions of the pitch there. But coach Ravi Shastri's revelation on Sunday at the MCG about the left-arm spinner having been only "70-80 per cent fit" in the lead-up to that match has led to a number of uncomfortable questions for the team management a week later.

Was Jadeja fully fit to tour Australia in the first place? Why wasn't he being treated at the NCA for the stiff shoulder and cleared, instead of taking an injection while on tour? Why was an unfit Jadeja then named in the 13-man squad announced on the eve of the Test? Even worse, why was an unfit Jadeja then named 12th man and made to field for nearly 20 overs in Australia's first innings and then a few more in the second innings? Why or how was Jadeja, with a stiff shoulder which needed injections at the start of the tour, firing in throws from the boundary? Was he just prompting critics from back home to fire blanks?

The query to Shastri as he faced up to the media was about how some experts in India had felt playing Jadeja on the green Perth pitch, where Nathan Lyon walked away as man-of-the-match would have been a better option than a fourth seamer. After having taken a characteristic pot-shot at the team's perceived detractors, accusing them of "firing blanks" from "millions of miles away", coach Shastri revealed that Jadeja had been suffering from a stiff shoulder from the time he'd landed in Australia nearly a month back.

"Problem with Jaddu was that he had taken an injection four days into coming to Australia because of some stiffness in his shoulder and it took a while for that injection to settle down. So when you look at Perth, we felt he was about 70-80 per cent fit and we didn't want to risk that in Perth," said Shastri before adding, "If he is 80 per cent here (in Melbourne), he will play, that's the answer."

According to the head coach, Jadeja had originally felt the stiffness before playing his only domestic game of the season, a Ranji encounter against Railways in which he was incidentally the man-of-the-match in Rajkot. He scored over 200 runs across two innings without being dismissed and took 7 wickets in all. It was prior to this match that he took an injection for the first time.

"When he came here (to Australia), he felt some stiffness and he felt that in India as well but he played domestic cricket after that. Still felt stiff in the shoulder and he was injected again and it takes time to settle. It has taken longer than we expected and we wanted to be careful," said Shastri.

"Last thing you want is someone breaking down after 5-10 overs and then we are stuck for players to pick for Melbourne and Sydney," he added reiterating the reasons for Jadeja not being considered in the XI for Perth.

For the record, the Indian media on tour, who were not "a million miles away" and were very much in the "southern hemisphere" like the Indian team and their coaching staff, meanwhile, had been kept in the dark about Jadeja on the eve of the Perth Test. When captain Virat Kohli had been asked about the injury concerns for the visitors, he'd said, "We will be announcing the squad after the press conference so you will get the injury updates and everything as well, okay," Kohli had said pointing at the team spokesperson.

Though there was an email sent, it only included injury updates on Prithvi Shaw, R Ashwin and Rohit Sharma. The only mention of Jadeja was in the 13-member squad "selected for the 2nd Test". It was also the first time India had named 13 players, ever since they began the practice of announcing their final 12 on the eve of every Test earlier this year.

That said, Jadeja couldn't have masked his injury better with the amount of time he was on the field substituting and especially with his bullet arm from the boundary on full display. So involved was he in the match that at one point he was wandering from mid-off to mid-on at the end of an over, blissfully unaware that Murali Vijay, the man he was standing in for, had already returned to the field.

His only other contribution during the Perth Test of course was adding fuel to the growing debate over the intrusiveness of the access given to and by the broadcasters during the course of a match by getting into a foul-mouthed tirade with teammate Ishant Sharma in the vicinity of the stump-camera with the Flying Fox - as the SpiderCam is called here - hovering not too far away.

You wonder whether Shastri was hinting at a possible call-up for the left-arm spinner by his admission about how an "80 per cent fit Jadeja" would have been picked at the MCG, especially having already revealed the concern over Ashwin's fitness. Jadeja did bowl a lengthy spell in the nets during India's practice session and even had a couple of the top-order batsmen in trouble. At one point, Indian physio Patrick Farhart walked up to him in the nets for a brief chat, which looked like an inquiry. Based on what Shastri would say around half hour later, you could assume it was about his fitness.

Shastri said that the management will "evaluate Ashwin" over the "next 48 hours". Ashwin only bowled at a pair of stumps on Sunday, and was closely monitored by strength conditioning coach Shankar Basu and Farhart. He did seem to struggle a little to finish his action completely-the characteristic pivot was missing-and once he was done with his solo spell, faced some throwdowns in the same net. Hardik Pandya too had a bowl, beating captain Kohli with only his second delivery, getting it to jump off a length and swerve away. But Shastri said that the team management would hold back before taking a call on the all-rounder, since they had to be "careful before we actually decide whether he plays or not".

The coach wasn't holding back though when it came to former cricketing greats like Sunil Gavaskar who criticized the selection calls made by the Indian team for the Perth Test. "We have to do what's best for the team, as simple as that. Question was asked about Jadeja which I answered and I don't think there was any other selection dilemma, if there was then not my problem." But as the Jadeja situation shows, there is perhaps a problem that the team management as a whole needs to look into, with how injuries are being managed and how they're affecting selection decisions.

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