“Feeling very good,” Jadeja said. “Especially playing ODIs after almost two years. You have to adapt quickly in this format. I believe that the domestic game that I played [against Delhi] helped me a lot. I bowled almost 30 overs in that match. So I never lost my rhythm. And I am trying to bowl Test lines and lengths in ODIs as well. What we call the rhythm, the continuity, was in place because my break from cricket wasn’t that long. So in my view, I have benefited from the domestic match that I played.”
Jadeja retired from T20Is after India’s World Cup win in June last year, which left him with no cricket between the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, which ended in the first week of this year, and this ODI series. Jadeja played two Ranji Trophy matches in this period but bowled in only one of them: 30 overs for 12 wickets across two innings.
India’s domestic cricket, especially the Ranji Trophy, has been in the news because of the board’s edict to its players to not skip matches unless injured or having their workload managed. Virat Kohli turned out for Delhi for the first time in 12 years and Rohit Sharma for Mumbai for the first time in ten. The board also received some criticism for what was seen as headmasterly treatment, especially when the cricket India was expected to play after the break was a different format.
Staying in touch with cricket doesn’t seem to have done any harm to Jadeja, which the decision-makers will take as vindication as they have maintained that the best way to improve as a cricketer is by playing matches.