By: Tarish Bhatt
After stamping his mark with the ball in the first three Ranji Trophy games, Ravindra Jadeja has now proved his worth with the bat to help Saurashtra in registering their fourth successive win in the tournament.
Ravindra Jadeja is in fine form with both bat and ball, and has so far taken 38 wickets, complimented by three half-centuries, which earned him the Test recall after 14 months.
The all-rounder could be as a serious threat for South Africa in the forthcoming Test series, starting November 5 in Mohali, and would also provide a stability to the team, especially in the lower middle-order.
Team India has been hunting for an all-rounder to find a perfect combination, and Jadeja could solve this problem, as he is arguably the best all-rounder in the Indian setup right now.
Even India limited-overs skipper MS Dhoni has also candidly declared that Ravindra Jadeja is on the best bets the team has to fill the all-rounder slot in all formats of the game.
“If you look at all-rounders in India, who is your best seaming bowling allrounder – it’s Stuart Binny – and the two best spinning all rounders – Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel.”
“Whether you like it or not these are our best seaming and spinning all-rounders and we have to make the best out of them,” Dhoni emphasised.
Seeing the recent trend, Virat Kohli likes to field five bowlers, and in the last Test against Sri Lanka he opted with four specialist bowlers and one all-rounder Stuart Binny.
It won’t be surprising if the Indian captain go on with a same combination, except Stuart Binny, who might make way for Jadeja into the playing XI.
Ravichandran Ashwin and Amit Mishra are most likely to be India’s frontline spinners, as they hunted in pair against Sri Lanka, while Ravindra Jadeja would play as a third spinner.
On a rank-turner there is no better spinner than Jadeja, and his batting prowess lower down the order strengthens his claim in the spot for the 1st Test against South Africa.
