Ravindra Jadeja Breaks Silence On His Test Captaincy Aspirations
Shubman Gill was recently appointed as India's Test captain for the tour to England with wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant designated to do the duty of his deputy.
He may not be among the names considered for the job but veteran all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja says he would love to be India's Test skipper at some point, having understood the role under different captains throughout his long career.
Young batter Shubman Gill was recently appointed as India's Test captain for the tour to England with wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant designated to do the duty of his deputy.
"Yes, definitely! Over the years, I have played under different captains. I know the mindset of every single captain whom I have played under and I also understand what players need and their mindset," the 36-year-old Jadeja told his former India teammate Ravichandran Ashwin in a YouTube chat when asked whether Test captaincy was among his ambitions.
Jadeja, who played his first Test back in 2012, detailed some of the leadership lessons he picked up from the iconic Mahendra Singh Dhoni, under whom he made his debut in all three formats for India, besides playing together for Chennai Super Kings in the IPL.
"Every captain has a different mindset on how he wants to run the team. I have played under MS Dhoni in every format and his thinking is very simple. If he feels that a batter can hit shots in a particular region, he keeps the fielder there to make the batter uncomfortable," said Jadeja.
It may be recalled that Ashwin had also supported Jadeja for India's Test captaincy once Rohit Sharma called it quits from the red-ball format.
"Why do we forget about Ravindra Jadeja? If you are willing to go for a new person as captain, I would say why not make him an understudy of an experienced guy for two years before handing him the job on a full-time basis?" Ashwin had wondered on his YouTube channel in support of the 80-Test veteran.
Breaking down the leadership requirements in different formats, Jadeja admitted that leading in T20s can take much more out of a captain than doing that job in Test cricket.
"In Test cricket, you have to change two or three fielders as per the need of the bowler and you don't need to change the field as per batsmen.
"Captaincy in Test cricket is way more different. It's simple, but calculative. It's not complicated like IPL or T20s, where every ball is an event," said Jadeja.
Fascinated by colours not whites in beginning
The premier all-rounder said he never thought of having such a long Test career.
"Honestly, when I started to play for India, I never thought I would play so many Tests. I always thought white-ball cricket was my forte and I wanted to establish there," he said.
"I was also fascinated by those coloured jerseys, numbers and names written on the back, the crowd and playing under lights, it was interesting for a young cricketer. All these were not in Test cricket then," said Jadeja.
"I also thought that Test cricket is such a long format and only those sincere players like Sachin paaji and Rahul paaji could play that format," he chuckled.
The spin-bowling all-rounder admitted that Dhoni has played an influential role in his cricketing career. They first met in 2005 during the Challenger Trophy.
"I was a kid then, so it was like he was MS Dhoni and when I saw him on the flight, he had long hair. Our manager said that we have to go with Dhoni from the airport to the team hotel.
"I was hesitant and thought, how can I go with him?" he recalled.
"Luckily, his phone got dropped on the floor and he had to wait. I thought this was the chance to get out of there, at that time I used to think about what I would talk to him, he is MS Dhoni," he quipped.
(This story is published as part of the auto-generated syndicate wire feed. Apart from the headline, no editing has been done in the body by ABP Live.)
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