Prolific. Where Ravindra Jadeja’s batting in domestic cricket is concerned, you wouldn’t mind using this word liberally. ‘Domestic cricket’ is the operative word here, for you wish he could translate half of his Ranji performances into international cricket.
That certainly hasn’t been the case. Jadeja returned to India’s dressing room on the back of two triple centuries this Ranji season. And he smashed them in a span of 10 days (wouldn’t a certain Cheteshwar Pujara be proud?). Now, he wasn’t just knocking the selectors’ door; he rammed it open.
With Irfan Pathan unavailable owing to injury, a slot was created for Jadeja in the lower-order, traditionally India’s weak link. Jadeja is supposed to tick all the boxes. He bowls accurately, fields brilliantly, but one is not sure of his exact role at No 7.
He doesn’t have the power of Irfan. It’s seen he struggles to clear the circle even. As India were losing their way in the chase of 325 in Rajkot, you somehow felt they were a batsman short. Having Jadeja at seven never gives the confidence of India batting deep. Why, R Ashwin was sent ahead of him in the ODIs against Pakistan.
It may be a touch harsh to assess him on the basis of his last few ODI scores (7, 27, 13). No 7 is a thankless position in any case. You either throw your bat at everything or are in at 15/4 when the ball is darting around. A battling 35 in the Kolkata ODI against Pakistan should have sufficed. But Jaddu, as he is fondly called, disappointed there too.
It’s indeed surprising how a batsman, who displays a wide array of strokes at the domestic level, struggles to find his feet against quality opponents. In fact, Bhuvaneshwar Kumar and R Ashwin looked more comfortable in Rajkot and gave the 25,000-capacity crowd a glimmer of hope after MS Dhoni’s departure.
The Indian skipper has to put this thinking cap on before the Kochi ODI on Tuesday. An in-form Pujara cannot be asked to wait any longer.
It was held that Shami Ahmed, who bowled a fine spell in his debut game against Pakistan, should have been persisted with. Dhoni, however, said that the Rajkot pitch dictated the selection.
“Well, if you see the game Shami played in, the wicket was really seaming. We have to see how good he is when it comes to bowling yorkers on surfaces like these where there is not much assistance for the fast bowlers. That’s why we went for Dinda because he is experienced,” Dhoni said.
For the record, Dinda has played just 13 ODIs.
