When will Kohli stop relying on Jadeja's DRS judgments?

Ravindra Jadeja's faulty DRS requests have landed India in trouble in more than one occasion.

It is safe to say that Ravindra Jadeja is not among the best judges of DRS. That Indian captain Virat Kohli is still aloof to the fact is the real matter of concern. After wasting a review on Day 3, Jadeja showed no sings of improvement and neither did Kohli when it came to being certain before going by Jadeja’s words alone as India made another woeful DRS call on Friday.

After setting Australia a target of 399, India started off well by picking up the wicket of Aaron Finch as early as the second over of the innings. Australian batsmen Usman Khawaja and Marcus Harris then decided to counter-attack, prompting Kohli to introduce Jadeja in the sixth over. Khawaja continued to be aggressive and hit Jadeja over the top for a boundary but the left-arm spinner was clever enough not to repeat the same mistake. In the next delivery, he deceived Khawaja, who half-way down the pitch, in flight. The ball ricocheted off Khawaja’s pads before landing on Rahane’s hands in the first slip. The Indian close-in fielders went up in vociferous appeal led by Jadeja. But umpire Ian Gould shook his head. The real drama began then.

The rest of the Indian fielders did not seem that interested but Jadeja, as usual, was adamant. He, in the end, managed to convince Kohli to opt for the DRS. Replays confirmed that it was a disastrous call. Not only was their daylight between bat and ball but the ball had no chance of hitting the stumps too. Khawaja survived and India lost their first review.

Seeing a review go abegging, Kohli could not control his emotions. He was almost down on his hunches with frustration and anger written all over his face. Perhaps he knew that it was not only Jadeja, it was his fault too. Relying on Jadeja in the past has also resulted in the loss of a review.

Khawaja was later on dismissed for 33 by Mohammed Shami but India had to work hard to towards the end. Pat Cummins provided some resistance with the bat by scoring a well-compiled half-century to stretch the match to Day 5. Australia were 258 for 8 at stumps on Day 4, still 141 runs away from victory while India only need 2 wickets to make it 2-1.