Star Indian all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja, who is playing his first competitive match since August 31, 2022, has failed to fire with the bat as well after an ordinary outing with the ball for his domestic side Saurashtra in their Ranji Trophy Elite Group B match against Tamil Nadu, which is currently underway at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. After managing to take only one wicket in the 24 overs he bowled during Tamil Nadu’s batting, there were high hopes that Jadeja would fire with the bat and rescue his side, but he could only manage to score 15 runs from 23 balls. During his stay at the crease, he hammered three boundaries. He was trapped in front of the wickets by Baba Aparajith on the third ball of the 47th over.
Jadeja last played for India against Hong Kong during the Group A match of the Asia Cup T20 tournament in the United Arab Emirates last year. He was ruled out of the tournament before the start of the Super 4 round due to a knee injury that he suffered and has not played since then. The 34-year-old star all-rounder has been selected in India’s Test squad for the first two Test matches against the Australian team, which will take place in Nagpur (February 9–13) and Delhi (February 17–21).
The left-arm batting all-rounder was asked to play a Ranji Trophy game to prove his match fitness, and that’s why he was selected in the Saurashtra squad and was later named the captain of the side as well.
Talking about the game, Tamil Nadu skipper Pradosh Paul won the toss and opted to bat first, after which riding on half-centuries from Baba Indrajith (66), Vijay Shankar (53) and Sharukh Khan (50), Tamil Nadu posted a total of 324 runs on the board. For the Saurashtra team, Yuvrajsinh Dodiya accounted for the dismissal of four batters.
In reply to Tamil Nadu’s first innings total, Saurashtra was struggling at 179 for 8 in 69 overs at the time of lunch. They still trail TN’s total by 154 runs.
