Ravindra Jadeja is currently the most wanted man in India. We as cricket lovers are always looking to pin the blame on someone and Jadeja offers the perfect scapegoat, the pantomime villain who stopped the youngster from pulling off the impossible. That’s where it lays, the word impossible. Even if Pandya had stuck around, there’s no guarantee he would have pulled off another 250+ runs single-handedly.
Jadeja has been a good servant of Indian cricket for years. Instead of drubbing him, let’s remember some of the reasons he’s respected the world over.
Probably the best fielder in the world
You’d go hard to find a player who has the agility, reflexes and power of Jadeja in the field. He’s constantly lurking around the batsman, snuffing out any chance of a quick single and ready to pounce on any semblance of a risk taken. Jadeja is probably the finest point fielders in world cricket today and also possesses one of the strongest and accurate throwing arms.
Even in this year’s Champions Trophy, he provided innumerable stops, fantastic throws to run-out batsmen and hardly put a foot wrong in the field.
He’s a much improved batsman
When Jadeja made his debut for the Indian team, he was seen more as a batting all-rounder. He was not able to contribute much with the bat and was dropped. He stayed low, worked on his batting and bowling and resumed his Indian career.
Jadeja is now a good batsman to have lower down the order. No ordinary all-rounder will be able to boast of 10 scores above 50 batting at number 7 or 8. Jadeja also has immense power with which he can thrash balls over the boundary.
On his day, he is unplayable
Jadeja might have not had the greatest tournaments, but on a good day, he can be a deadly bowler to deal with. He has an average of 35.39 in ODIs and is also a very economical bowler with a run rate of just 4.92.
Jadeja also is very crucial for his captain because he can run through his overs in just minutes, allowing them to apply pressure on the batsmen who will be looking to take a break between balls.
A team player throughout
Jadeja might have been the one responsible for Pandya’s wicket, but he is also a big team player. He bats wherever the team requires him and has no qualms about doing the dirty work for the team.
He has also come in when the team have been in dire straits and picked up important wickets or runs while sacrificing his natural game and this is the biggest indicator that he is a player who is very important to India.
A self-made player
Jadeja is not someone who gives up. His story started off as a poor son of a security guard who was not happy with his son’s choice to play the game. He still fought on and went on to represent Saurashtra domestically.
He was criticized even after the 2009 T20 match against England where he was trolled with the moniker “Sir” because he was blamed as the reason we lost thanks to his slow batting. He still persevered. Even after he was dropped for his bad batting, he came back as a strike bowler and won the best Bowler in the world award.
Here’s a player who gives it all and we’re criticizing him like he’s not done anything for us. Here’s to more legendary stuff from Jadeja who well and truly deserves a break to be with his new-born daughter in peace.
