This T20 World Cup 2024 that India won in the West Indies, brought about an end to the T20I careers of Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, and Ravindra Jadeja. While the first two are still very well in the scheme of things for the Champions Trophy 2025, and then the World Cup in 2027, the same cannot be said for all-rounder Jadeja, who has been struggling for form in white-ball cricket, be it with bat or with the ball.
Instead, India is looking at a younger Axar Patel, who already has a ton of experience, and is a like-for-like replacement for Ravindra Jadeja in every format. The lanky left-hander not only is a solid orthodox spinner, but is steadily becoming a batsman who can get tough runs for the team in any position, and any format.
Ravindra Jadeja’s Mediocre Form
In 2023, Jadeja played two T20Is and scored only 23 runs in all. If that isn’t a large enough sample size, he has played eight matches this year, where he could manage only 35 runs, at an average of 11. His bowling has been equally questionable. Last year, he picked up only two wickets in as many matches, and his economy rate was 9.08. This year, in eight matches, he picked up only one wicket.
When it comes to the ODIs, he played 26 in 2023 and scored 309 runs at an average of 30.90. But his strike-rate was poor 75. His only saving grace was the 31 wickets he picked up in those matches. But this year he has no 50-over matches to show against his name. So that, kind of, gives an indication.
Axar Patel, the Preferred All-rounder
Jadeja’s overall numbers are still better than Axar Patel, but the latter has improved leaps and bounds in the last two years. In 2023, Axar was brilliant with ball in T20Is and picked up 11 wickets in 13 matches, with an economy of 7.09. This year, in 10 encounters he was even better, and picked up 13 wickets in 10 matches at 7.10. With the bat in 2024, he has scored 92 runs at an average of 23.
In ODIs in 2023, he did struggle a bit with the bat and ball with 140 runs in 11 matches, to go with five wickets only, but his excellent form makes up for the failures back then.
The Only Way Out
One of course, cannot be certain that it’s end of the road for Jaddu in white-ball cricket, but he would have to really come up with something exceptional to be in the reckoning again. In fact, he won’t even have the IPL to prove his form for Champions Trophy 2025, as it is scheduled for Feb-March next year, and the Indian T20 league would take place after that.
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