Ravindra Jadeja reveals he had sleepless nights thinking about comeback – Firstcricket News, Firstpost

India all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja revealed he had sleepless nights for more than a year after getting dropped from Team India’s limited-overs squad post the Champions Trophy loss in 2017.

It was only after the Oval Test in 2018 that things began to change for him. He had slammed a hundred in that Test under tough circumstances and conditions and began his journey to become a better player, slowly finding his way back into the limited-overs team as well.

In an interview to Indian Express, he spoke about those tough days, “I couldn’t sleep. I would be lying down but jaaga hi rehta tha (was awake only). I was in the Test squad but not playing as we played a lot overseas. I wasn’t playing ODIs.

“I wasn’t playing domestic too as I would be travelling with the Indian team though not playing. I wasn’t getting any opportunity to prove myself. I would keep thinking about how I am going to come back,” he said.

File image of Ravindra Jadeja. AP

Jadeja credits the Oval Test performance for helping him bounce back.

“That Test changed everything for me. Poora (complete) game. My performance, my confidence, everything. When you score in English conditions against the best bowling attack, it greatly impacts your confidence,” he said.

In the last couple of years, Jadeja has also worked hard on his batting and the effort was there to be seen in IPL 2020 where he struck the balls with a Strike Rate (SR) of over 170. In the previous years, his SR used to be around 120.

On what changes he made to bring power in his batting, he said, “I improved my training methods as I realised in T20 I needed power apart from the timing. Timing comes in handy when you are not in a rush for runs, like in Tests. I increased my training before that season, worked a lot on overall strength, upper body, and shoulder.”