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With eye on Shami, Jadeja's batting chops become vital
India want batting depth but the pacer's bowling performance may make him hard to drop and that is where the allrounder becomes crucial.
On a nippy Saturday evening in Dharamsala, most Indian players hadn't yet made their way to the HPCA Stadium nets when Ravindra Jadeja strapped his pads, put on his gloves and took guard for a batting stint. With Virat Kohli and Ishan Kishan adhering to their pre-match routines in the adjoining nets, Jadeja went on to have a 30-minute hit before being done for the evening.
In the three weeks since India’s World Cup journey set off in Chennai, it hadn't been customary for Jadeja to commence a net session with bat in hand rather than ball. But if the all-rounder felt a need to sharpen his batting skills before the clash versus New Zealand, it was totally understandable. With Hardik Pandya unavailable for the fixture due to an ankle injury, India had Suryakumar Yadav inked at No.6 and Mohammed Shami at No.8 on match eve. Neither had played a game yet, and Jadeja may have sensed that his services with the bat at No.7 would be summoned for the first time in this World Cup in a game between the two best teams of the tournament.
He was right. On Sunday evening, Jadeja joined Kohli in the middle at 191/5, the game delicately poised with India needing 83 runs from 97 balls and New Zealand requiring five wickets. Suryakumar’s maiden ODI World Cup innings had lasted eight minutes as a mix-up with Kohli resulted in a run-out, and another wicket at that juncture would have exposed Shami at No.8. It would have also validated India’s insistence on batting depth right from the outset of this campaign. Despite Kohli’s sheer mastery of such chases, he needed a helping hand.
About an hour later, the ball pinged off Jadeja’s bat as a pull against Matt Henry dissected the gap between deep square leg and fine leg to perfection. It was the hit that earned India a four-wicket win, Jadeja staying unbeaten on 39 off 44 balls after cobbling a crucial 78-run stand with Kohli for the sixth wicket.
In a campaign where the top order and the bowling unit have clicked for India, Jadeja’s performance with the bat will add another layer of confidence. Remember he had been fairly subdued this year – before Sunday, he had scored 189 runs in 19 ODIs at an average of 27 and a strike rate of 64.28 without a half-century.
But it’s not always about cold numbers while batting at his position. On Sunday, for instance, the situation simply called for a calm head. Jadeja, 34, provided that, playing the ball on merit safe in the knowledge that India will win as long as one of him or Kohli stays through to the end.
His unflappable temperament in tight situations is a facet he has developed primarily with his considerable experience at Chennai Super Kings. And why should he be flustered when he has it in him to flex the big hits at the end?
Even when CSK needed 10 off two balls with the title on the line this year, Jadeja was able to deliver the most improbable of victories. Though it was further strengthening of his reputation as a finisher in recent years, it’s a bit ironic that his most defining knock in 50-over cricket so far has come in a losing cause. It was against New Zealand in the 2019 World Cup semi-final at Old Trafford in Manchester, when Jadeja came in at 92/6 in a chase of 240 and plundered a 59-ball 77 to nearly help India snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.
Notwithstanding the result, it told us of Jadeja’s growing reliability as a batter; one who can provide the finishing kick but also stage a recovery from a precarious position.
It’s this reliability that India need from Jadeja in the matches ahead. They will hope Pandya returns against England in Lucknow to add heft as a genuine all-rounder at No.6, but Shami’s five-wicket haul may make India persist with him as the third seamer rather than go back to Shardul Thakur. Never mind that Thakur’s batting average of 17.31 and strike rate of 105.11 are superior to Shami’s average of 8.44 and strike rate of 85.77.
“We need to create that depth as it was lacking in our team for the last few years. When we talk about depth in batting, that No. 8 and No. 9 positions become very crucial,” India skipper Rohit Sharma had said when the World Cup squad was named in the first week of September.
If India budge from that earlier view and opt for their three best pacers with Pandya as the fourth option, Jadeja will have to brace up to keep providing the sort of batting contribution he did in Dharamsala. And for that, he may have to spend as much time on his batting as his bowling in the remainder of India’s practice sessions at this World Cup.
