Fans challenge Ravindra Jadeja to some innovative challenges

Ravindra Jadeja

The 10th season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) is underway and despite it being just 2 weeks old, we’ve seen quite a few blinders being pulled off on the field. The level of fielding of players and teams, as a whole, has seen a meteoric rise ever since the shortest format began and it is now considered as important as batting and bowling, if not more.

With the margins between teams reducing by every passing day, every run saved becomes crucial. The IPL has helped Indian fielding soar like a kite and it is not unusual for fielders from the subcontinent to take catches and field associated to a certain Jonty Rhodes.

In the last few years, the Indian team has established itself as one of the best fielding sides in the world. Leading the pack would be all-rounder, Ravindra Jadeja. The 28-year-old is probably one of the few genuine ‘all’-rounders in the game, if you include fielding along with batting and bowling.

Most recently, Jadeja produced a run-out of the highest quality when he got Josh Hazlewood out with a no-look back-flick during the third Test between India and Australia at Ranchi. Maybe it was the fact that India were playing at Ranchi, MS Dhoni’s hometown that Jadeja decided to pay tribute to the former Indian captain’s trademark style of running out players.

Following this, Castrol Activ came up with an innovative campaign in order to give fielding challenges to Jadeja from all across the country along with cricket commentator, Harsha Bhogle’s help. An exchange of Twitter interactions between Bhogle and Jadeja on March 23rd and 24th regarding the importance of fielding in T20s is what started it all. This, then, led to the Indian all-rounder agreeing to take up any fielding challenge that fans might throw at him via Castrol Activ.

On 28th March 2017, Castrol Activ sent out a tweet asking fans to suggest the toughest fielding challenges for the man from Saurashtra. This set in motion a huge number of entries coming in from different parts of the country. In addition to the massive challenges, the uniqueness in the entries were what made this such an innovative way to get cricket fans interacting and challenging their favourite Indian fielder. Here are a few challenges that were sent Jadeja’s way:

Harsha Bhogle and Castrol Activ have selected the challenges. It will be very intriguing to see if the ICC World No. 1 Test bowler will be able to Cling on just like Castrol Activ’s Actibonds Cling On to Protect the bike engine. Stay tuned for more!