India vs England: Ravindra Jadeja In Elite Club With Third Test Ton, Greats Laud Effort

Ravindra Jadeja continued from where he left on Day 1 in the fifth rescheduled Test against England at Edgbaston and scored only his third Test ton. He reached the three-figure mark in style with a boundary off Matthew Potts. While Rishabh Pant's ton on Friday was fiery, No. 7 Jadeja took his time to settle in and made a late flourish on Saturday. His ton was only the fourth instance of any No. 7 or lower order Indian Test batter scoring two centuries in a calendar year, with Kapil Dev (1986), MS Dhoni (2009) and Harbhajan Singh (2010) being the other members of the elite club. This is also the third instance in Indian cricket, when two left-handers scored tons in the same innings. The earlier instances were: Sadagopan Ramesh (110)-Sourav Ganguly (125) against New Zealand in Ahmedabad (1999) and Ganguly (239)-Yuvraj Singh (169) against Pakistan in in Bengaluru (2007).

Sachin Tendulkar, Venkatesh Prasad and several others lauded the effort. 

Super stuff Jaddu. What a special innings!@imjadeja#ENGvIND pic.twitter.com/vAXwonZ1nI

— Sachin Tendulkar (@sachin_rt) July 2, 2022

Averaging 38 with the bat and 24 with the ball in Test cricket after 60 test matches, arguably one of the greatest spin bowling all-rounder to have played the game, Ravindra Jadeja. An outstanding 100 this.

— Venkatesh Prasad (@venkateshprasad) July 2, 2022

Played Jadeja. The joy on the face of his team mates said it all.

— Ian Raphael Bishop (@irbishi) July 2, 2022

India, 2-1 up in the five-match contest, are without captain Rohit Sharma after he was ruled out with Covid-19. Fellow opener KL Rahul, who with Rohit scored heavily in England last year, had already been sidelined with a groin problem.

Both teams have experienced major upheaval since they last met, with Chris Silverwood and Root replaced as England's coach and Test captain respectively.

Kohli stepped down as India captain in February, with paceman Jasprit Bumrah leading the side for the first time at Edgbaston, while Rahul Dravid succeeded the retiring Ravi Shastri as coach in November.

By playing the game, albeit almost a year later than schedule, India are helping fill an estimated £40 million ($48 million) hole in English cricket's finances.

Topics mentioned in this article

Ravindra Jadeja India Cricket Team England Cricket Team England vs India, 2022 Cricket