ENG vs IND: Sunil Gavaskar tries to dissect the reason for Jadeja being promoted ahead of Rahane

India have found themselves in choppy waters yet again on a cloudy morning in England. The bowling attack of the hosts were all over he visiting batsmen in the opening session picking up three wickets. After Cheteshwar Pujara got out nicking one off James Anderson to Jonny Bairstow, Ravindra Jadeja coming in to bat at five surprised one and all as everyone was expecting under-fire Ajinkya Rahane.

Former India cricketer Sunil Gavaskar was in the commentary box during this period and he tried to dissect the reason for the same. Gavaskar felt that Jadeja was promoted to disturb the lines of the bowlers with Virat Kohli, the right-hander at the other end. However, he was flustered to see the southpaw bat ahead of the Ajinkya Rahane and also reckoned that the vice-captain of India wasn’t ready when the wicket fell.

“I think it’s because of the left-right combination to disturb the line and length of the bowlers. Jadeja has shaped well and he batted for long hours and scored runs. Pant has been inconsistent so far in the series. But, I am not sure why Rahane wasn’t sent up the order. Looked to me like he wasn’t ready as shown in the pictures,” Gavaskar said while commentating.

Jadeja only third time batting at no.5 or higher in Test cricket

Interestingly, this is only the third time Ravindra Jadeja has come out to bat at number five or higher in Test cricket. In 2017 against Australia in Bangalore and in 2019 against South Africa in Vizag were the other two instances but on those occasions, India were possibly looking to add some quick runs to set up the game. The conditions in England are completely different and the all-rounder will have to tackle the swing upfront.

Having said that, the 32-year-old has been decent enough with the bat and has been left batting with the tail more often. In five innings of the series so far (not considering the innings at The Oval), Jadeja has scored 133 runs including scores of 56, 40 and 30 which is good for an all-rounder. However, batting at five, he will need a better score and most importantly, India will have to bat well to put a big first innings score.