Jadeja in IPL isn’t the all-rounder we know

KOLKATA: On the seven occasions that Ravindra Jadeja has batted so far in IPL 2022, his highest score is a laboured 28-ball unbeaten 26. In Thursday’s last-ball win against Mumbai Indians, he conceded 30 in four wicketless overs, dropped two sitters and was stifled into playing an eight-ball three before holing out at long-off. It has been a slow season too for Jadeja—striking at 119.74 and taking just five wickets at an above average economy of 8.13. These are acceptable numbers for a fringe player at best, not even an India hopeful. But Chennai Super Kings have spent the most (₹16 crore) on Jadeja’s retention, hoping he would replicate the success MS Dhoni achieved as captain.

It isn’t as if Jadeja’s form graph has recently flatlined. For someone who first came to prominence due to his IPL performances, Jadeja has had a rather underwhelming career— just two IPL fifties in 2477 runs at a strike rate of 127.75 and 132 wickets in 206 matches at an economy of 7.64 and a strike rate of 23.87. To offer some context, among the 15 bowlers to have taken at least 100 IPL wickets, only Ravichandran Ashwin (24.78) has a worse strike rate. Among all batters with at least 2000 runs, Jadeja has the lowest number of fifties, Wriddhiman Saha being the next in the list with eight fifties. These can be damning numbers.

If you aren’t a specialist, T20 cricket demands you to be an accurate bowler, a crack batter at the backend and a brilliant outfielder. Right now, Jadeja is still just making the cut but the gap between expectations and reality is looking bigger at a time when Chennai Super Kings are going through a long-impending transition. Only thrice in 14 editions has Jadeja ended with a strike rate above 140. Only once (2019) has he taken 15 or more wickets and managed an economy of less than seven (his figures were 15 wickets, econ 6.35, SR 21.6 and ave 22.86). For a player like Jadeja, that is glaring in a tournament as competitive as the IPL.

It also leads to a very pertinent question—is Jadeja a more effective all-rounder in other formats? Statistics at least suggest so. Two centuries, 17 fifties and an average of 35.76; 242 wickets at a strike rate of 60—

TESTS

Runs

2396

Wkts

Runs

2411

Runs these are hallmarks of a proper Test all-rounder. Jadeja owes his success to Indian pitches but he also bowled miserly spells that built pressure on batters on the last tour of England. Jadeja the white-ball bowler has been an asset too. Be it topping the charts with 12 wickets at the 2013 Champions Trophy or being India’s best bowler at the 2021 T20 World Cup (along with Bumrah, and at an economy of 5.94), Jadeja has been largely outstanding whenever the situation required him to be so. It was also Jadeja the batter who kept afloat India’s hopes till the last possible ball in the 2019 World Cup semi-final defeat to New Zealand.

But the IPL seems a different kettle of fish for him. And that’s strange because slow left-arm spinners—from Shakib Al Hasan to Axar Patel—have conventionally been among wickets. A rather persistent argument is how Jadeja doesn’t vary his speed as much as Patel or Ashwin, or doesn’t have a range of options, making him pretty one-dimensional once you figure out his lengths. But given Jadeja bowls more in the second half of the innings in IPL,

Runs

2477

TESTS

it’s a mystery how he hasn’t been able to lure more wickets. Another factor could be that unlike in Tests, he doesn’t spin the ball per se in IPL, probably because the pitches aren’t abrasive and the ball doesn’t get enough time to become old and grip.

Similarly, Jadeja probably is a better batter in Tests because of the attacking fields set to him when he usually bats with the lower order. Once the fields are up, it’s easier to clear the infield and get those quick boundaries that India have so often needed at home or away. ODIs still provide those middle overs where you can plan an innings while rotating the strike. But in T20s, where every dot is worth its weight in gold, Jadeja gets stuck once his scoring areas are plugged. Thursday night once again highlighted that shortcoming. Jadeja is the only allrounder to play over 200 IPL matches, but his averages with both bat and ball are far from remarkable. That he has still been able to circumvent that and establish himself as one of the best all-rounders of the current era may be largely down to his Test exploits.