Ajay Jadeja, a former cricketer, thinks that KL Rahul, Team India’s senior batter, was under a lot of pressure on Day 1 of the first Test against Australia in Nagpur on February 9th.
He said that because Rahul was favored over Shubman Gill, who was in good form, it was important for him to score a lot of goals. Additionally, Jadeja mentioned that the 30-year-old would have known that a number of other batters had performed exceptionally well while he was on break.
Jadeja asserted that the player’s early dismissal would have given Australia hope and given India’s benched players the impression that they might get a chance in the next match.
Jadeja explained to Cricbuzz following the first day’s stumps:
“KL Rahul appeared to be under stress. In addition to the opposition, India now has many options, which added to the pressure. Rahul returned from a break while Shumban Gill had to sit out. He was patient.
He’s got two gears. He scores quickly at times right from the start, but sometimes he takes a long time. This time, he went into defensive mode. He put in a lot of effort but, regrettably, was let go. He gave the benched players of Australia and India hope.”
At the crease, Rahul displayed great composure, scoring 20 runs off 71 deliveries. However, he was defeated by debutant spinner Todd Murphy in the penultimate over of the day after failing to make the start count.
Ajay Jadeja on Team India skipper Rohit Sharma’s batting: “Australia will be worried that he is still at the crease”
With a brave half-century, Indian captain Rohit Sharma gave his team an excellent start and put the Australian bowlers on the back foot.
Ajay Jadeja believes that the star batter crushed the visiting team’s hopes of a comeback after they were dismissed for 177 runs. He praised the Indian captain for his counter-attacking strategy as he quickly scored important runs in the final session.