Jadeja applied pain relief cream on his palm: Indian team to match referee

There was footage played out on the Internet showing Ravindra Jadeja taking something from Mohammed Siraj’s hands and applying it to his palm while bowling on the opening day of the Nagpur Test against Australia. The video showed that Jadeja appeared to rub this substance onto the index finger of his left hand before bowling a delivery. However, Jadeja was never seen applying the substance to the ball itself.

That created a mini-controversy of sorts and when match referee Andy Pycroft was made aware of the video, he sought clarification from Indian skipper Rohit Sharma. However, it turned out that Jadeja was applying some cream to his hand in order to ease the pain. ESPN Cricinfo reported that the match referee wanted to clarify with the Indian team and no charge has been levied against the left-arm spinner.

Jadeja made quite a comeback on Thursday and claimed his 11th five-wicket haul in Test cricket and played a major role in helping India dismantle Australia for 177. The spin-bowling all-rounder, who was playing his first international game since September 2022 due to a long-standing knee injury, scalped 5/47 in 22 overs. 

The wicket has a lot of turn on offer, and the Indian spinners found a lot of bite from the surface to keep the Aussies on their toes. At the end of Day 1, India were on 77/1 with Rohit Sharma and Ravichandran Ashwin batting out there.