Indian batter Sai Sudharsan is surely having a great outing at Delhi’s Arun Jaitley Stadium. After a splendid knock of 87, the batter has now ruled the field with an unbelievable catch at short leg, as Ravindra Jadeja dismissed West Indies opener John Campbell.
India has dominated the West Indies throughout the tour, and one of the core reasons for the West Indies’ batting collapse in the first Test was the sharp fielding from the Indians. They have continued that in the second Test as well.
India has already dominated with a mammoth first-innings total, at the back of two magnificent tons from young Yashasvi Jaiswal and skipper Shubman Gill. Nitish Reddy, Dhruv Jurel and KL Rahul added valuable runs with their respective scores.
Sai Sudharsan pulls off a freak catch
After having declared their innings on the score of 518, the Indians took the field in the second session of play to bowl at the West Indies batters. The pitch has looked much flatter till now, and not much is expected to be in favour of the bowlers.
After the two seamers went wicketless in their first spell, Shubman Gill called in Ravindra Jadeja to have a go with the spinner. Jadeja picked up 4 wickets in the second innings of the Ahmedabad Test.
In his very first over of the game, he dismissed West Indian opener John Campbell for 10 runs after the batter hit him for a boundary on the first ball. The ball landed on the length, and Campbell went for the hard sweep, connecting sweetly, but to his disbelief, the ball went on to hit Sudharsan in the short leg as he held onto the ball despite having initially given up with his hands to his shoulders and head going down.
The Indians rejoiced for having drawn first blood, and so did Jadeja, who did not get an outing with the bat this time around. However, Sudharsan himself looked in discomfort as the ball rushed onto his body and had an obvious impact. Also, the Indian coaches, including Morne Morkel, were absolutely shocked seeing Sai Sudharsan complete that catch.
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Shubman Gill’s got the will
Shubman Gill’s batting has undergone a huge evolution ever since he took up the captaincy of the Indian side. The right-handed batter, who was often criticized for his Test form despite being a batter with high technical prowess, has turned record books upside down just within the 7 games he has been appointed the skipper of the Indian team.
It has often been noted that Gill is one of those players who thrives with added responsibility, be it for the Gujarat Titans or now the Indian team. Shubman Gill already has 5 Tests as the skipper of the Indian team and has hence surpassed the likes of Rahul Dravid and Rohit Sharma for most tons as an Indian Test captain.
He has also levelled himself with the likes of the great Sourav Ganguly, MS Dhoni and Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi. Only four Indians have scored more Test hundreds than him as the captain of the Indian team, but they all have led in 25+ Tests, which include legends like Virat Kohli, Sunil Gavaskar, Mohammad Azharuddin and Sachin Tendulkar.
India quickly switches to spinners after Jadeja’s first wicket
As soon as Ravindra Jadeja got to his first wicket in the very first over of his spell before the Tea Break, the Indian captain Shubman Gill switched to an all-spin attack. Indians are playing with three frontline spinners anyway. Though this strategy has not paid off much in the overseas conditions nor under home conditions, they are a perfect fit in Gambhir’s model of immense batting depth.
After the first wicket, Shubman Gill has attacked with Kuldeep Yadav and has also introduced Washington Sundar from the other end. While Kuldeep is a natural spinner of the ball and will often be luring the batter with his flighted deliveries, Sundar looks to chip in with his fiery spells with accurate and wicket-to-wicket bowling.
The Windies left-handers have, however, looked flawless against the left-arm chinaman Kuldeep Yadav after struggling against Sundar, the off-spinner. This is the reason Jadeja was taken off the attack by Gill.