Anubhav Katheria
Gautam Gambhir’s first assignment as India head coach is a 3 T20 and 3 ODI match series against Sri Lanka. BCCI had announced the T20 and ODI squad for the Sri Lanka tour, while Riyan Parag and Harshit Rana are set to make their debut in ODI, the star Indian all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja was missing in the squad.
The T20 World Cup winning all-rounder who recently announced his retirement from the T20I format couldn’t secure his place in the ODI squad. Was this the sign that Indian selectors have moved on from Jadeja?
Axar Patel and Washington Sundar have been selected in place of Jadeja in the ODI squad.
Why not Jadeja?
Jadeja’s performance in white ball cricket has been consistently poor be it the 2023 ODI World Cup or 2024 T20 World Cup. He was struggling with both bat and ball across format. Jadeja played 26 ODI in 2023 where he scored 309 runs at an average of 30.90 and took 31 wickets which was the only thing he had done in all those 26 ODIs, but his strike rate was a bit concerning which was 75.
In 2024 he didn’t play any ODI. In T20 he played 8 matches this year but took only one wicket and in 2023 he took only 2 wickets in all his T20 matches, last year his score with the bat were also poor where he only scored 26 runs
Axar as Jadeja’s replacement
While Jadeja’s overall stats are good in comparison with Axar Patel, the problem for Jadeja is that he hasn’t done well in recent times, his form has been poor and on the other hand Axar in the last two years has improved a lot and has performed very well.
In 2023 Axar played 13 T20s and took 11 wickets and this year he took 13 wickets in 10 matches. In ODIs he did struggle with the bat and the ball where he only managed to score 140 runs in 11 matches and took only 5 wickets.
Jadeja’s exclusion from the ODI squad against Sri Lanka can be a sign that Indian selectors have found Axar Patel as his perfect replacement. Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli also announced their retirement from T20 format and are part of the squad because of their good performance and are also confirmed for the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 in February. Meanwhile Jadeja’s selection in the squad for the Champions Trophy is uncertain, he must come up with some extraordinary performances to book his place in the squad.
