Jadeja arrives early for extra batting practice, gets the job done

Birmingham: Ravindra Jadeja arrived at Edgbaston on day two of the second Test a lot earlier than his India teammates for some extra batting practice and that clearly worked in his favour as the all-rounder put his team in a strong position alongside double centurion Shubman Gill.

Jadeja reinforced his value to the team at number seven with a 203-run stand with Gill that allowed India to post 587 on day two of the second Test against England.

The pacers used the short ball against him early on but Jadeja was up to the task, using the pull shot effectively.

Though Indian players are supposed to travel in a team bus, it can be assumed that Jadeja took special permission to arrive early at the ground.

"Somewhere I felt that I should go and bat extra because the ball was still new. I felt if I can see the new ball off, it would become easy for the rest of the innings. Luckily I could (almost) bat till lunch, and then Washi (Washington Sundar) also batted well with Shubman."

"The more you bat in England, the better it is because you never feel you are set in England. At any time a ball can swing and take your edge or bowl you," he said after stumps on day two.

Does it also help his bowling when he scores runs? "When you contribute with the bat for the team, it feels great, when you are playing outside India, and the team needs you more, it feels good," Jadeja said.

"From 210 for 5 to putting together a big partnership to take the team forward, it is a challenge. I took it as a challenge. If you can stick around with the captain and put together a big partnership, it gives you confidence as a cricketer and a batter that in the coming matches also you can contribute.

"When we were batting together, we were only talking about partnership. That we will keep batting long and we will keep talking to each other. That was the conversation between the two of us," said the senior most member of the team.

In the first session, Ben Stokes was not happy with Jadeja running into the danger areas of the pitch and he constantly conveyed that to the umpire. However, the Indian said he had no intention to create rough for the England batters.

"He felt I was making rough for myself. The fast bowlers were doing it anyway. I don't need to do that. He was repeatedly telling the umpire that I am running on the wicket. I had no such intention. It might have happened once or twice by mistake, but I didn't mean to," he added.