Sanjay Manjrekar hails Ravindra Jadeja’s patience after all-rounder’s crucial knock at Lord’s

Former Indian batter Sanjay Manjrekar showered praise on Ravindra Jadeja for showing all the patience with the bat in the first innings of the third Test against England at Lord’s on Saturday. Jadeja scored a fine knock of 72 runs off 131 balls with the help of eight fours and one six.

The left-hander also played out the second new ball as he backed his defense to keep the English bowlers at bay. This was Jadeja’s third consecutive fifty and an important one for India as the visitors were trailing by 133 runs when they lost five wickets.

Jadeja spent almost four hours at the crease and Manjrekar was impressed with the left-hander’s resistance.

“It’s not just about the runs, but the grind in the middle and that’s been the big change from his earlier days, where he used to come and throw his bat around to score quickly. Now, he is just about the occupation of crease and very often he gets to play the second new ball, which he does really well,” said Manjrekar on ESPN Cricinfo.

“The amazing thing about Jadeja is he got about 70-odd runs but batted almost four hours and that’s been the great facet about his batting performances over the years.”

On the other hand, Manjrekar added Jadeja has been able to make the most of his experience and has capitalized while batting on flat English pitches.

Manjrekar said, “If you look at his performance just before this series, against New Zealand on turning pitches and in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, he wasn’t great. So, he cashed in when the opportunity to get runs a little more easily, when the challenge was a little easier than at home on those rank turners or against an Australian side on slightly helpful pitches.”

“So, it was his experience coming to the fore and he came into this particular series with some loss of batting form, but I’ve loved the way he has cashed in.”

At lunch on Day four, England were 98-4.