Ravindra Jadeja bowling straight and not into the rough baffles me: Dinesh Karthik

Former India cricketer, Dinesh Karthik, was critical of the lines Ravindra Jadeja bowled during the recently-concluded first Test of the series between England and India. Karthik felt Jadeja should have exploited the rough patches on the Headingley pitch more to get fruitful results out of the surface, which didn't have anything extra in it for spinners.

He also credited the manner Ben Duckett toyed around with Jadeja and captain Shubman Gill's plans stem the flow of runs. Duckett scored 38 runs off as many balls he faced Jadeja in the second innings, which helped him keep the runs coming thick and fast, which helped not only the team's cause but also notch up a brilliant 149 that also got him the Player of the Match.

"He was (Jadeja bowling straight and not into the rough), and that baffles me, because for a man with so much experience, he must know what it means to bowl in the rough. He should've gone wide of the wicket, and bowl into the rough. What Duckett did today was domination of the purest form, in the most clever manner. The way he just played with Jadeja and Shubman Gill, saying no matter where you put the field, I am going to play that shot," stated Karthik while speaking to Cricbuzz.

Shardul, Prasidh did not bowl consistent lengths: Karthik

The cricketer-turned-commentator was blunt in his assessment of the current crop of Indian pace battery. He felt that Shardul Thakur and Prasidh Krishna did not carry forward the efforts of Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj, which resulted in lack of wickets and loss of their grip on the game.

"I don't think we genuinely have the skill set beyond the certain bowlers who can actually make inroads, that's a fact. You can't be too hard on the Indian team, they will find bowlers eventually, and they will start defending these scores. Bumrah and Siraj bowled a high quality first spell, they did not get a wicket, but they set it up. Shardul and Prasidh did not bowl consistent lengths, it was all over the place," he added.

India ended up losing the game by five wickets at the end. Speaking of Jadeja's performance in particular, it was just the second time in his Test career that he was able to scalp only one wicket across both innings of a Test despite bowling 20-plus overs in each of the innings. The first instance was the Ahmedabad Test against Australia in March 2023.