'Look Where Ravindra Jadeja is Fielding': Former Australia Cricketer Recalls His Advise on Figuring Out India's Bowling Plans

Over the course of his India career, Ravindra Jadeja has shown vast improvement across departments making him an invaluable asset across formats. In the ongoing Test series against England at him, the allrounder has made significant contributions to hand India an unassailable 3-1 lead after they lost the opening contest.

Jadeja is certainly someone the teams across the world keep their eyes on whenever they square off against India.

Former Australia wicketkeeper-batter Brad Haddin has recalled how he once tried to understand Jadeja’s bowling and how he got seemingly innocuous deliveries to turn or skid leaving a batter dumbfounded.

Jadeja’s response only left Haddin further confused.

“Jadeja was always a really interesting one to talk to after a Test series. Because all the spinners would go over and say, ‘What are you undercutting the ball? Are you going over the top?’,” Haddin said on Willow Talk podcast.

“He (Jadeja) goes, ‘I just bowl at the stumps.’ And you go, ‘Nah nah nah, what else you do?’. “He goes, ‘I bowl at the stumps, the wicket will do it. You guys think it’s going to do something’. ‘What about the straight one?’ He goes, ‘Sometimes it goes straight,'” Haddin added.

Haddin tried digging deep but his efforts went in vain and in fact proved counterproductive.

“And you’re out there batting, you think, ‘Is this the one that goes straight?’. You talk to him afterwards, you go, ‘What did you do with that one?’. He goes, ‘I just put on the stumps, and that was the one that skid’,” Haddin recalled.

Former Australia allrounder Dan Christian praised Jadeja for his athleticism.

“You just don’t know what’s going to happen. You can’t just punch him down the ground because he’s so athletic,” Christian said.

Haddin, who played 66 Tests, 126 ODIs and 34 T20Is between 2001 and 2014, said he once advised his coach to check where Jadeja was fielding to figure out India’s bowling plans.

“It was interesting playing him in an ODI series. Our coach was thinking what are they (India) going to bowl. And I remember saying just look where Jadeja is fielding. If he’s at deep long-off, they are going to (be) full at sumps. If he’s at backward square leg or cow corner, they’re going slow and into the wicket. He goes everywhere where the ball is,” Haddin said.