Ravindra Jadeja has no doubt been one of the key players for India for several years now. The all-rounder has been of great use to the team with his batting, bowling and amazing efforts on the field. He has got his side out of a whole on a number of occasions so far in his career. The player had at one stage of his career almost cemented his place in the Indian team. His all-round performance was at its imperious best as he always managed to steer his side to victories. However, the story has been taking a sour turn in the recent past as Ravindra Jadeja has undergone a major dip in form.
With the World T20 coming up in another few months the biggest challenge for India will be to build a strong playing XI which displays the cricket of the highest quality on the pitch. The first question that will be coming to the mind of every member of the selection committee’s mind will be who will fill up the spot of the all-rounder in the team. Jadeja as always will be a topic of discussion in this regard. The recent poor show in the past few games from the left-hander will be a big source of concern for every Indian fan including the management. Let’s take a deep dive into his numbers and find out where things have gone wrong for India’s star all-rounder in the recent past.
Ravindra Jadeja always was seen as someone who could accelerate the run rate at will and could play big scoring shots towards the later half of the innings. His bowling abilities were never under question as the spinner would always be able to execute his plans properly on big occasions. He seemed to be a perfect option to bat at no.6 for India and also bowl 4 entire overs thereby choking the opposition’s run rate.
It was for the first time in the 2021 T20 world cup in UAE when Jadeja’s performances seemed to undergo a major decline. The tournament was possibly the worst from India’s point of view as the side got knocked out in the group stages itself finishing below Pakistan and New Zealand in the points table. A major reason for India’s miserable show in the tournament was Ravindra Jadeja’s being unable to counter the opposition either with his bat or ball. The player seemed totally ineffective against the opposition unlike a few months before when he used to be a threat to any side in the world.
The important games against Pakistan and New Zealand saw India totally crumble under pressure. Ravindra Jadeja failed to pick a single wicket in these two games and went for runs against everyone’s expectations. The captain didn’t even prefer to let him bowl the entire 4 overs of his quota in a game. Although he managed to pick 7 wickets in the three next games against mediocre sides like Namibia, Scotland and Afghanistan, it seemed to be a little too late as India was already on the brink of getting knocked out of the tournament by then.
Thus Jadeja’s being unable to continue his brilliant show of IPL 2021 into the world cup cost his side the trophy by a huge margin. India’s first-choice all-rounder had let the team down in the biggest of stages.
Ravindra Jadeja’s disastrous IPL 2022 Season
The next big task for Ravindra Jadeja was to help his side Chennai Super Kings successfully defend the IPL trophy which they had one handsomely in 2021. The task seemingly got even greater when Ravindra Jadeja was given the captaincy responsibilities too by the CSK management after MS Dhoni decided to step down from the same. What followed was another series of unfortunate circumstances for Ravindra Jadeja and Chennai Super Kings.
The team failed to qualify for the playoffs and finished at the 9th position in the points table with just 4 wins out of the 14 matches played. Ravindra Jadeja failed to deliver a single quality performance either with the bat or ball. What was most surprising is that his fielding which used to be a major factor in his game too seemed to have deteriorated as he dropped several crucial catches throughout the season. A player who was batting with a strike rate of around 200 in the later half of the innings in the previous IPL could barely bandage to send the ball out of the boundary this year.
Jadeja’s failure to score big runs, and provide a proper finish had a serious impact on his side as they barely managed to pose a threat to the opposition team, unlike the previous season. His bowling standards underwent a clear decline. The sheer wicket-taking ability was missing and the opposition’s run flow, therefore, wasn’t slowing down at any phase of the innings. Such was the quality of his performances on the pitch that it was being assumed by the experts and also the team management that the additional responsibilities of a captain seemed to curb his individual performances.
It was owing to this fact that the captaincy was shifted back to MS Dhoni so as to relieve Jadeja from the burden of the same. Ravindra Jadeja’s stats in IPL 2022 are as follows:-
Batting stats:-
Matches :- 10, Innings :- 10, Runs :- 116, Highest :- 26*, Average :- 19.33, Strike Rate :- 118.37
Bowling stats:-
Matches :- 10, Innings :- 10, Wickets :- 5, Average :- 49.60, Economy :- 7.52.
Ravindra Jadeja though has been a massively reliable player for India for quite some time throughout his career and is clearly going through an extremely tough patch at the moment. It depends on the management now as to whom they would pick in the Playing XI that would feature in the World T20 later this year in Australia.
Several options in the form of Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel and others are ready are available for selection. If Jadeja manages to prove his critics wrong in the few remaining T20 games that India is to play before the start of the tournament, then there’s a possibility of his comeback into the team or else the 33-year-old will have to sit out for the entire tournament making way for other players with better current form and performances to play instead of him. It’s just a matter of time to find out how things turn out to be for Jadeja and India hereon.
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