Ravindra Jadeja back with a bang in India vs South Africa 2015, 1st Test at Mohali

There was much talk around the selection of Ravindra Jadeja in the India squad for the Test series against South Africa. While he was in a wonderful form in Ranji Trophy 2015-16, there was a chance that Stuart Binny might have been selected ahead of him given Virat Kohli's preference for pace. The Mohali pitch, traditionally suited to pace, looked vastly different from usual, as pointed out by Kepler Wessels before the match. One session into the match, the ball was turning square and Dean Elgar — a left-arm spinner of considerably limited skill — had taken his first wicket of the day. Live Cricket Scorecard: India vs South Africa 015, 1st Test, Day 1 at Mohali Elgar was far from done; after getting Cheteshwar Pujara out LBW, he returned to deceive Ajinkya Rahane in flight to have him caught at slip. The very next ball he bowled he had Wriddhiman Saha caught at slip as well. That wicket brought in Jadeja, batting at No. 7. There were two things noticeably different about Jadeja's batting; he was taking a much larger stride than usual, and the distance between bat and pad was shorter than it usually is while he bats in Tests. Jadeja had stated prior to the series that he hardly played any cricket since being dropped from the Indian side. He took a complete break, and that seems to have worked wonders for him. His figures in the first three matches for Saurashtra in Ranji Trophy 2015-16 read 6 for 27 and 5 for 45 against Tripura, 6 for 71 and 7 for 55 against Jharkhand, and 6 for 75 and 7 for 60 against Hyderabad. In addition, he also scored 91 and 58 in the first two matches. READ: Virat Kohli: Tracing the growth of a superstar Jadeja's confidence was sky-high, and that came across in the way he carried himself with the bat. He scored 38 off 92 balls with 4 boundaries. Given the context of the match — only two other batsmen crossed 30 in the innings, one of which was Murali Vijay with 75 — this was an integral innings. Jadeja was calm and composed in the middle; he was less fidgety than he has been in the past, and he managed to play the type of innings that would give Virat Kohli some faith in him at No. 7. Of course, it was with the ball that Jadeja would have been expected to deliver more. And he did: with his second delivery he managed to deceive Faf du Plessis and bowled for a duck. South Africa slipped to 9 for 2, and India had their foot firmly in the door. Jadeja bowled 5 overs for 7 runs on Day One. Given how the pitch has behaved so far, Jadeja will have a lot of bowling to do on the second day as well. With Ravichandran Ashwin and Amit Mishra bowling beautifully as well, South Africa will have a massive task ahead of them. Unless the pitch flattens considerably on Day Two, we are likely to see a lot of spin from India. Jadeja's recent form and his obvious confidence makes him an ideal candidate to bowl a bulk of those overs. READ: Virat Kohli’s India must change team composition to add strength against South Africa in Gandhi-Mandela Test Series 2015 (Shiamak Unwalla, a reporter with CricketCountry, is a self-confessed Sci-Fi geek who loves cricket more than cricketers. His Twitter handle is @ShiamakUnwalla)