Ravindra Jadeja has spoken openly about the difficulties he faced during the early stages of his India career, admitting that being pushed down the batting order often affected his confidence and made him question the team’s belief in his batting ability. As India looks to continue its dominance after a strong first day against Sri Lanka, Jadeja reflected on his growth as a Test batsman and revealed how he developed the temperament to play a long innings.“When I started, I used to bat at number four. If you look at my entire Ranji Trophy career, my batting average is over 60. Whatever first-class cricket I played in Ranji Trophy and Duleep Trophy domestically, my batting average is over 60,” he said. So, somewhere, I had this belief that I had that ability. But sometimes what happens is you get into the Indian team and don’t get that batting number,” Jadeja said in a chat with broadcasters ahead of the second day’s match, which was delayed by rain.
Jadeja recalls confidence struggles
The all-rounder admitted that regularly batting at No. 8 or 9, and sometimes even lower than Ravichandran Ashwin, affected his confidence during the early years of his international career.“Sometimes the situation is that I hit numbers 8 and 9 as well. So, when you are sitting in the dressing room with your pads on, next to you, a fast bowler is picking the ball. Seeing all these things, my morale and confidence go down. Sometimes you think to yourself, ‘I have to go and score runs,'” he added.Jadeja explained that watching bowlers preparing to bat in front of him often made him feel that the team did not have complete confidence in his batting.“And in the same dressing room, a fast bowler picks the ball, and thinks, ‘Come on, now the bowling is coming.'” So, because of all those things, my self-confidence was literally disturbed. I would think: Man, what is this? The team doesn’t even trust me? I saw that in my early days, and I didn’t get that number. So low, that I went several times to bat under Ashwin. Somewhere, all these things bothered me,” Jadeja revealed.
India in command after day one
Jadeja’s thoughts came after India produced a dominant batting display on the opening day of the Test against Sri Lanka. India ended the first day with a score of 288/2, putting themselves in a strong position after today’s rain-affected play. Devdutt Padikkal was the star of the day, scoring a brilliant unbeaten 131 to score his maiden Test century. KL Rahul also played a crucial knock with 77, while Rishabh Pant remained unbeaten with 27 at the end of play.
