Outcry over Gambhir's unfair treatment of Ravindra Jadeja as world's top all-rounder surpasses legendary batsmen Sachin, Kohli, and Rohit

Ravindra Jadeja and KL Rahul played crucial roles in steering India away from a potential defeat against Australia in Brisbane. Rahul's impressive 84-run knock and Jadeja's 25th Test half-century gave hope to the visitors of avoiding a follow-on at the Gabba. After captain Rohit Sharma fell for just 10 runs, Jadeja partnered with Rahul to add 67 runs for the fifth wicket. However, Rahul's dismissal, 14 runs short of a century, came as a blow to India's chances of salvaging a draw. Despite this setback, Jadeja's resilience and contribution with the bat provided some much-needed stability to India's first innings.

But the highlight remained Jadeja. Playing his first Test of the series, Jadeja brought out his iconic sword swing of the bat when he completed his third fifty on Australian soil. In fact, Jadeja's effort impressed fans so much that they were left wondering why he didn't play in the first two matches. India went ahead of Washington Sundar in Perth before replacing him with Ravichandran Ashwin in Adelaide. However, neither all-rounder could do much, with Sundar scoring 4 and 29 with the bat and picking up three wickets, and Ashwin took just 1 wicket and scored 22 and 7.

Jadeja conceded 52 runs with the ball and went wicketless, but the World No. 1 all-rounder is living up to the moniker with the bat, which is something India could have done with, more so in the day-night Adelaide Test with the pink ball. The fact that Jadeja ranked atop the world rankings and did not get a game was always questionable on the part of the team management, and now that he has proven himself again, the daggers were out pointing towards Gautam Gambhir.

Here are some fan reactions, calling out the Indian head coach for his treatment of Jadeja.

What is more telling is that Jadeja averages a fine of 56.75, and it continues to grow with every run he scores from this point onward. Before this match, Jadeja had played just five innings in Australia – 4 and 5 in Melbourne (2018), 81 in Sydney (2019), 57 in Melbourne (2020) and 28* in Sydney (2021). But this is where things get interesting. Among Indian batters who have at least faced 400 balls in their Test career in Australia vs Australia, Jadeja's average is the best – greater than Sachin Tendulkar (53.20), Virat Kohli (50.96), Cheteshwar Pujara (47.28) and Rohit (26.68).

All Indian hopes now rest on Jadeja, who added a 53-run partnership with Nitish Reddy before Pat Cummins dismissed the in-form youngster for his lowest score of the series, 16.