India-Australia rivalry is among the most popular rivalries in the cricket world and people are enjoying some great cricket in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2023 which is being played in India. The first test match which was played at Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium, Nagpur, has been won by India by an innings and 132 runs which is certainly a big win against Australia.
The toss was won by the Australians and they scored 177 runs in the first innings after choosing to bat first but the Indians put up a wonderful show as they posted a total of 400 runs on the score board in their first innings. The Australians were trailing by 223 runs but in their second innings, the whole team got out for just 91 runs and with this win, India is one step closer to cement its place in the finals of the World Test Championship 2021-23.
Ravindra Jadeja, the Indian all-rounder, has been adjudged as the Player of the Match for his super performances with both bat and ball. While Jadeja took 5 wickets in Australia’s first innings, he dismissed 2 Aussie batters in the second innings as well plus he scored important 70 runs in India’s first innings which helped the team in posting the total of 400 runs.
This is certainly a great comeback by Ravindra Jadeja as he was out of cricketing action for almost last six months because of knee injury. While Jadeja is getting praised for his performance in the first test match, there is a section of Australian media which has alleged that Ravindra Jadeja is involved in ball tampering. During Australia’s first innings, Ravindra Jadeja was seen taking some substance from Mohammed Siraj’s hands which he rubbed on his finger. There were few who alleged that it was some type of substance which would tamper the ball and help him in spinning it more.
The former Pakistani cricketer Salman Butt has lashed out at all those who accused Ravindra Jadeja of ball tampering. Speaking on his YouTube channel, Salman Butt says that only cricket illiterates can say such a thing because ball tampering helps pacers only in reverse swing so what a spinner will do by tampering the ball.
Other than Australian media, some foreign former players including Michael Vaughan also raised questions regarding the incident but as per the reports, the Indian skipper Rohit Sharma and team manager were called by the match referee Andy Pycroft and the particular video clip of Ravindra Jadeja rubbing something on his finger of bowling arm was shown to them. In response, the match referee was informed that it was an ointment for pain relief.
However, Ravindra Jadeja has been fined 25 percent of his match fees for breaching Level 1 of the ICC Code of Conduct as he was seen applying a cream on his index finger without informing the umpires.
Australian media is trying to create controversies unnecessarily instead of focusing on the game, what do you say?