Ravindra Jadeja latches onto ODI lifeline

Until two days ago, Ravindra Jadeja was oblivious to what was happening in Dubai. He'd recently returned home from a personally-satisfying Test match at the Oval - only his second of the year - and was already turning out for Saurashtra in the Vijay Hazare trophy. And then came a summoning phone call.

Two injuries - to Axar Patel and Hardik Pandya - has not just earned him a place in the squad, but also landed him in the playing XI in what he terms as his most memorable comeback. You can imagine him striking off days with red ink in his calendar in the last year-and-a-half, when he says "it's been 480 days since I last played". The relief is evident, even if the figure is exaggerated by 30-odd days.

But all of his emotions culminated in a bit of an anxious start - a no ball, a dead ball when he ran in without realising his skipper was still setting fields, and two freebies that Shakib Al Hasan put away for fours. But for a man with 136 prior ODIs, getting his act together was just a pause, breathe and next ball, away. Quite literally.

Rohit Sharma and MS Dhoni came together after those fours, and took forth a field change suggestion from Jadeja, who expertly pre-empted Shakib's next move. Shikhar Dhawan quickly sprinted from mid-wicket to backward square leg, and took his second catch of the night.

"I knew Shakib was looking to play over midwicket, so I just talking to Rohit [Sharma] that we can change the field. We can take deep midwicket, deep long on and keep square leg up. Luckily, I bowled just outside the off stump, and I knew he was going to play sweep over midwicket. Luckily I got a wicket after I kept the fielder there," Jadeja said.

His bowling smarts may still be intact, but in the little over the past year, India - and a few other teams in the world - have leapt onto the wrist-spinners bandwagon. The origin of India's shift away from their long-trusted pair of Ravichandran Ashwin and Jadeja is in the tour of Sri Lanka in 2017 when the pair was rested. By the end of the five ODIs, Kohli was left enamoured by this new attacking bowling options he'd found.

"Being wrist spinners, they will always keep you in the game. I certainly felt that they were spot-on with attacking all the time. You might see changes in the bowling attack every now and then but these guys have grabbed the opportunity really well. It's going to be a challenge among all the bowlers and the spinners that are going to be in the part of the bigger group to make it to the 2019 World Cup," Kohli had said after that tour.

"We always had in mind to bring wrist-spinners into play. We honestly did not think of playing two together, but they are so good together that it is tempting to play them every game together."

In the months that followed, home ODIs against New Zealand, Australia and Sri Lanka slipped by Jadeja, as did the limited-overs away tours of South Africa and England. A strong urge to control only what's in his capacity, took over, and left him working and re-working on his skills.

"I was only looking at when I got a chance... because last 2-3 series have been away and I've not played in that. So, I was motivating myself that whenever I get a chance... what's in my hands is to perform. I was thinking more about what was in my hands, about what I can do, about how I can improve my game and how I can upgrade my game in away conditions. Those are the things I would think," Jadeja said.

The sudden recall had come slightly out of the blue and with very little preparation time, but it still had the elements of control that Jadeja so loves to thrive in. His first spell of eight on-the-trot overs began with Shakib's wicket and saw Bangladesh go through a lean period of run-scoring. They dropped from 31 for 2 in 9 overs to 77 for 5 in 24, with Jadeja accounting for all the three wickets to fall. Jadeja hurled down 34 dot balls in those 48 deliveries, and consistently bowled on and slightly outside the off-stump on a fuller length to combat the slowness of the surface, and successfully cut off seamless run-flow.

His return a little later involved nine more dot balls and yet another wicket - giving him his fourth-best ODI figures of 4 for 29. Ironically, Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal had a blank wickets column at the end of the day, but what mattered more was the fact that Jadeja's return more-than seamlessly covered for Pandya's absence with the ball.

But Jadeja, who technically replaced Axar in the Indian squad, is not using the joy of his instant success to look too far ahead. "There's time for the World Cup, we're playing a lot of matches before that. So whenever I get an opportunity, I'll have to perform the same way as I did today," he said.

This could well be the time for Jadeja to have a fair crack at resurrecting his ODI career, but there isn't a long, generous rope to extend in his direction now. A fit Pandya will demand a place in the starting XI immediately, and the restoration of balance to the team combination will be come from one of the four spin options going out.

Over to Jadeja to take all the chances coming his way from now, and convince the team management that, that candidate shouldn't be him.