As the pitch continues to turn square at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai, for the ongoing third and final Test between India and New Zealand, Rohit Sharma has quite a task at his hands, as he looks to make the perfect use of spin trio of Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar. On Day 2, in the third and final session, Ravichandran Ashwin wanted Ravindra Jadeja to bowl from one particular end, however, Rohit Sharma turned down the request and as fate would have it, the Indian captain was proven wrong as Jadeja eventually did change his ends with Ravichandran Ashwin, and this resulted in him taking the wickets of Daryl Mitchell and Tom Blundell.
It is important to state that the end Ashwin wanted Jadeja to bowl from, was the one from which the left-arm spinner had taken five wickets in the first innings.
Initially, Rohit Sharma’s call to not listen to Ashwin, looked like the right decision as on the last delivery of the 21st over, Jadeja bowled an absolute ripper as the ball angled in, and it landed around the middle. The delivery spun past the outside edge of Will Young, and it just bounced over the off-stump.
Murali Kartik and Simon Doull, who were on air, at that particular time, praised the probing bowling of Jadeja. The duo also talked about how Ashwin wanted Rohit to get the left-arm spinner Jadeja bowling from one particular end, however, the Indian captain politely turned him down.
“In between overs, Ashwin went up to Rohit, asking his captain to change the end Ravindra Jadeja is bowling from. Rohit immediately quashed it,” said Murali Kartik.
“Jadeja is getting decent purchase from the end he is bowling from,” he added.
On the other hand, Simon Doull said, “That was pretty quick, wasn’t it?”
However, some time later, Jadeja did change his ends with Ashwin. And immediately, the left-arm spinner got the wickets of Mitchell and Blundell.
Ashwin’s decision to take review goes horribly wrong
On the first ball of the 22nd over, Ravichandran Ashwin convinced Rohit Sharma to take a review after the on-field umpire Richard Illingworth did not raise his finger for a leg-before wicket appeal. Rohit seemed hesitant to take a review, however, Ashwin managed to convince him.
As Daryl Mitchell went for a reverse sweep, the ball ended up hitting his pads. However, the impact was clearly outside off, and India ended up burning a review.
In the ongoing third Test, India gained a slender lead of 28 runs after being bowled out for 263. Shubman Gill top-scored with a knock of 90 while Rishabh Pant also played a crucial innings of 60 runs.
Ajaz Patel returned with five wickets for the visitors while Matt Henry, Glenn Phillips and Ish Sodhi took one wicket each.
Earlier, New Zealand were bundled out for 235 in the first innings after Ravindra Jadeja took a fifer. Washington Sundar also returned with four wickets.
India have already lost the ongoing three-match series, after facing defeats in the first two Tests in Bengaluru and Pune.
The hosts need to win four out of their remaining six matches in the ongoing World Test Championship (WTC) cycle, if they want to make it to their third final in a row.
After the series against New Zealand, India will square off against Australia in the five-match Border-Gavaskar Trophy, set to begin in Perth on November 22, 2024.
