London,jun 26
Former England cricketer Mark Butcher criticised Indian all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja for his poor bowling utilisation of the rough during the first Test at Leeds against England, calling it “owning a hammer but punching nails in with your fist”, reported Wisden Cricket Weekly.
The new-look Team India failed to chase 371 runs during the Leeds Test against England, with opener Ben Duckett’s swashbuckling 149 and watchful Joe Root’s fifty contributing big to the team’s win. During the second innings, Jadeja took 1/104 in 24 overs, getting the over of skipper Ben Stokes. However, England, particularly Duckett, neutralised Jadeja’s threat very well, using the reverse sweep to their advantage.Speaking on the Wisden Cricket Weekly Podcast, Butcher said about Jadeja, “I could not believe how poorly he bowled.
I would liken it to owning a hammer but punching nails in with your fist instead – not landing the ball in the rough at all until, basically, it was too late. That was extraordinary.””You talk about experience, and he has all the experience in the world. Somehow, it didn’t seem to click to him or Rishabh Pant, the keeper, that it might be a good idea not to keep missing the rough all day to the left-handers,” he added. Butcher also slammed Team India’s selection, particularly of bowling all-rounder Shardul Thakur, as one of the reasons why they looked ineffective, and they could have gone for spinner Kuldeep Yadav. Shardul could not get into double digits while batting and took a total of two wickets across the match, leaking runs at a high economy rate.
“The issue around the lineup itself… how much more interesting might that last day have been had they gone for Kuldeep Yadav instead of Shardul Thakur. Thakur had had a really poor game until that one over where he gave India a tiny sniff at the back-end,” he said.”
