After picking up a 5-wicket-haul with the ball, Ravindra Jadeja converted his superlative form with the bat, scoring a half-century in the first Test against Australia on Friday. With a fifer on Day 1 and a fifty on Day 2, Jadeja truly proved his credentials as an all-rounder. Seeing Jadeja's heroics, an epic conversation unfolded between the trio of Dinesh Karthik, Ravi Shastri and Matthew Hayden over 'Three-Dimensional Players', a topic that has triggered extreme reactions from fans and experts in the past.
The term '3D Cricketer' was famously used by former India chief selector MSK Prasad when Vijay Shankar was picked over Ambati Rayudu in India's 2019 ODI World Cup squad.
Speaking of Jadeja, Hayden was full of praise for him, as he called him a "three-dimensional cricketer" while commentating on Day 2 of the Nagpur Test. "Three-dimensional cricketers are a very sensitive topic in this part of the world, I must say," Karthik, a fellow commentator on the occasion, said on Hayden's praise.
Hayden, probably unaware of the Shankar-Rayudu incident, pushed Karthik and Ravi Shastri to dwell on the topic and enlighten him.
"Come on now, don't keep the suspense any longer," Hayden asserted before Karthik intervened and said while bursting into laughter, "Maybe Ravi bhai can enlighten you on that."
"I don't think I have ever witnessed Ravi Shastri backing down from a challenge. What is it, big fella?" Hayden said, pushing the former India head coach to explain the controversy to him.
"When a player was picked some time ago and one of the selectors mentioned that he was a three-dimensional cricketer. I'm still trying to figure out what that means," Shastri said, replying to the former Australia opener who then started to laugh. Hayden then said: "What I meant, just for clarity is, a really terrific fielder, decent with bat and can bowl."