Why this is Ravindra Jadeja's best chance to regain lost confidence and a spot in the Test team

Jadeja should make it large

The India 'A' team that would face the visiting Bangladesh 'A' at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru was picked on Wednesday. Shikhar Dhawan was named the captain of the team that would play a three-day game against the Bangladesh 'A' side and a three-match ODI series.

India 'A' have done well off late in both the shorter as well as the longer format of the game so one would've not expected wholesome changes to the squad, but the addition of one member caught everybody's attention. That member was Ravindra Jadeja.

The 26-year-old's last appearance for India in whites came in August 2014, in the fourth Test of five-match series against England at Old Trafford. A subsequent shoulder injury which kept him out of the Test series in Australia, followed by an unimpressive show at World Cup that succeeded the Tests meant that the left-arm spinner lost his place in the side and the selection panel were forced to go back to senior pro Harbhajan Singh to give some more variety to the attack.

But with Harbhajan remaining largely ineffective. Jadeja's name has once again returned into the spotlight and this is a great opportunity for the Saurashtra based - cricketer to regain his spot in the national set-up in the purest form of the game.

Conditions could force Kohli to play three spinners

If one has a look at the venues where South Africa would play the four Test matches, you can presume that in two out of the four venues - Bengaluru and New Delhi - India would definitely be tempted to play three spinners.

Ravichandran Ashwin looks like he would most certainly feature in the playing XI while Amit Mishra after his good tour to Sri Lanka also could consider his spot a bit assured.

With skipper Virat Kohli heavily in favour of the five-bowler theory, Jadeja could well be the man to turn to provided he puts in a good all-round performance in the A fixture against Bangladesh.

Chance to learn from Rahul Dravid

As a cricket spectator, I don't think any of us had any issues with Jadeja's bowling except for the fact, instead of bowling like how a left-arm spinner should, which is to deceive a batsman in air, Jadeja has looked to dart the ball in at a great pace and while that can be used as a surprise weapon, overusing that method could result in predictability and lack of penetration on the part of his bowling.

When Ashwin was struggling to attain consistency in his bowling, his childhood coach advised him to get back to bowl the way he did early on in his career.

“It was before the England tour that I advised him to get back to being the off-spinner he was during his first four years of first-class cricket for Tamil Nadu, which was to pitch the ball on a fuller length outside the off stump to right-handers and let the tremendous revolutions that he imparts, both over and side spin, do its job. It was around the same time that Rahul Dravid, who assisted the Indian team as a mentor on the tour of England, advised him the same, as did Muttiah Muralitharan on the virtues of spot bowling.” - Sunil Subramaniam, R Ashwin's childhood coach.

This is where I think working with Dravid for a period of a week or so could do wonders for Jadeja. To be able to talk with the batting legend and understand the technique of beating the batsman in flight, by drawing him forward and making him play rather than firing the ball in and making it to easy for him to use the pace and play could well make him a totally a different bowler and thereby could help him pick up more wickets as well, which is what is expected out of him.

India also have another option of picking Axar Patel over Jadeja, which would be a like-for-like choice, but in his short international career so far, the Gujarat cricketer hasn’t looked too convincing with the bat and hence will probably not be picked ahead of Jadeja despite the fact that he put in an effort of 4 for 0 against South Africa A in Wayanad recently.

With the level of competition for a spot in the national team, very few get the chance to represent India. Even fewer get a second chance after not having done very well in their first attempt. Jadeja, it seems is part of the latter group of players and its time for him to stand up and show what he is really made off.