After registering the clinical six-wicket over Australia in the second Test of the ongoing Border Gavaskar Trophy, India all-rounders Axar Patel and Ravindra Jadeja engaged in a funny banter where the former asked whether "Jadeja bowled well just to keep him away from the bowling crease."
Coming off the six-month injury layoff, Jadeja has been sensational in the first two Tests as he was adjudged Player of the Match in both the Tests. The 34-year-old scalped seven wickets and scored 70 runs in the first Test in Nagpur and he picked up 10 wickets, including a career-best of 7/42 in the second innings of the Delhi Test.
"Sir, I am not getting a bowl. Are you bowling like this so that Axar doesn't get a chance to bowl?" Axar jokingly asked Jadeja in a video posted by BCCI.TV on Twitter.
Replying to the question, Jadeja said: "They (the Australians) prefer playing the sweep and reverse sweep. My effort was to bowl stump to stump. If they miss and the ball stays low, then the ball is bound to hit the stumps.
That's what happened today when five balls hit the stumps."On the other hand, Axar has been sensational with the bat, chipping in with match-defining knocks lower down the order.
He scored 84 in the first Test in Nagpur and made a crucial 74-runs, establishing a 114-run stand with Ashwin (37) for the eighth wicket to take India close to Australia's first-innings total.
Showering praise on Axar's batting, Jadeja said: "It's okay that you are not getting a bowl. But when you are batting, it looks like you are batting on a different pitch.
It literally feels like there are no demons on the pitch when you are batting. "It feels like the Australian bowlers are ordinary when you're batting and it doesn't look like the pitch has turn and low bounce."
With the six-wicket win on Sunday in the second Test, India held an unassailable 2-0 lead in the four-match series. The third Test of the series will take place from March 1 to 5 at the Holkar Stadium in Indore.