India bowling coach Morne Morkel was full of praise for India star Ravindra Jadeja. Morkel claimed that Jadeja is a complete package as he contributes in all departments and is also an X-factor player for India.
Ravindra Jadeja took his 300th Test wicket during the second Test between India and Bangladesh at Green Park in Kanpur. His 300th Test victim was Khalid Ahmed, the last wicket to fall in Bangladesh’s first innings.
Jadeja is now among 11 players to achieve the double with over 3,000 runs in Tests and over 300 wickets in Test cricket. He is the seventh Indian to take 300 wickets in Tests after Anil Kumble, R Ashwin, Kapil Dev, Harbhajan Singh, Ishant Sharma and Zaheer Khan.
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Morne Morkel applauds Ravindra Jadeja for completing 300 Test wickets
During the press conference after day 4 of the Kanpur Test, Morne Morkel congratulated Ravindra Jadeja for scoring 300 runs in Test cricket. He called Jadeja a complete package and an X-factor player who contributed brilliantly in batting, bowling and fielding.
“To me, he (Ravindra Jadeja) is the complete package. He’s a guy who bats, can hit, can make magic happen in the field. He’s an X-Factor player. He’s a team player and he’s done that for India for many years,” Morne Morkel said.
“Yes, it’s a special club to join the 300 Test wickets club. He has played for India and he’s a guy who works on his game. That’s what you want to see. He’s very happy to reach this milestone,” he added.
Jadeja hasn’t had much to do in this Test so far. He took 1-28 in the first innings and scored 8 runs with the bat. However, he will be a key player for India on Day 5 as they look to bundle out Bangladesh as soon as possible to get a result.
Morne Morkel talks about India’s game plan
Morne Morkel also talked about India’s game plan to take an aggressive path during the batting. He revealed that the message was to go for the win and show positive intent from the start.
“That was our message this morning (to win). Having lost two days of the Test, how do we start this morning? It will be a key to show positive intent. Two days left in the Test match, extended sessions, there is still a lot of cricket, a lot of time to play,” he said. Morne Morkel.
Meanwhile, Day 4 was action-packed as India displayed aggressive batting. All the batsmen showed intent as the Indian batsmen tried their best to take the game forward. Despite losing wickets at regular intervals, their aggressive batting intent did not stop.
India were 285-9 with Yashasvi Jaiswal top scoring for the team with 72 off 51 balls. KL Rahul also announced his return to form with 68 off just 43 balls. Shubman Gill scored an important 39 while Virat Kohli scored 47 off 35 balls.
Skipper Rohit Sharma started the innings strongly and led his team. Rohit hit sixes off his first two balls to lay the foundation for the team to follow. India bowled out just 34.4 overs to score 285 runs.
