What a comeback series the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy is turning out to be for Ravindra Jadeja. While the series marked the all-rounder's return to international cricket after a long injury layoff, he hasn't looked out of touch from Day 1 and has in fact won Player of the Match in each of the first two Test matches that India have won in Nagpur and Delhi respectively.
Even though the hosts didn't have a great opening day at the Holkar Stadium in Indore on Wednesday where they were bowled out for a mere 109 despite having chosen to bat first, it was Jadeja's four-wicket haul by the end of the day's play that was perhaps their major positive coming out from the day's play.
The left-arm spinner joined legendary India all-rounder Kapil Dev in an elite list. The 34-year-old became only the second Indian to have scored over 5000 international runs as well as take 500 wickets. He achieved the milestone when he got rid of Travis Head, who was the first Australian batter to depart with just 12 runs on the board.
Besides Jadeja and Dev, the other all-rounders to have achieved this feat include England's Ian Botham, South Africa's Shaun Pollock, Sri Lanka's Chaminda Vaas, New Zealand's Daniel Vettori, Bangladesh's Shakib Al Hasan and Pakistan's Wasim Akram, Imran Khan and Shahid Afridi.
Talking about the Indore Test, having got the first wicket early, the home team would have felt they can come back into the day especially when Marnus Labuschagne was bowled shortly after Head's wicket but replays confirmed it was a no-ball as Jadeja had overstepped. This was a massive turning point on Day 1 as Labuschagne (31) along with the best batter on the day Usman Khawaja (60) added a 96-run stand for the second wicket to ensure that Australia have a lead at Stumps.
Even though both Khawaja and Labuschagne along with Steve Smith (27) went back into the pavilion by the time the match the play ended on Day 1, with all wickets falling to Jadeja, Australia were 156/4 at Stumps, leading by 47 runs with Peter Handscomb (7*) and Cameron Green (6*) out in the middle.