Former Indian opener Aakash Chopra reckons Ravindra Jadeja has been rested for the five-match T20I series against the West Indies. Jadeja didn’t find his name in the 15-man squad for the West Indies T20Is, which was announced on Wednesday by the Ajit Agarkar-led selection panel.
Chopra reckons there shouldn’t be any question marks over Ravindra Jadeja’s selection in the T20I team. Jadeja has performed consistently with both bat and ball in the shortest format of the game and has done a terrific job for the side.
The left-hander has scored 457 runs in 64 T20I matches whereas he has taken 51 wickets. Jadeja had played a key role in taking Chennai Super Kings to glory in IPL 2023 as he had smashed 10 runs on the last two balls of the final over against Mohit Sharma in the summit clash versus Gujarat Titans.
Jadeja scored 190 runs in 12 innings of IPL 2023 for CSK and he also scalped 20 wickets in 16 matches at an impressive economy rate of 7.56.
Meanwhile, Indian selectors have picked four spinners in Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravi Bishnoi, and Axar Patel for WI T20Is.
Aakash Chopra said on his YouTube Channel, “There are four options in spin-bowling – Axar Patel, Yuzi (Yuzvendra) Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav and Ravi Bishnoi. Axar Patel will be first in this race because Ravindra Jadeja’s name is not there. I am assuming it is part of workload management.”
The former Indian opener added: “There shouldn’t be any question marks over Ravindra Jadeja in terms of T20Is, just my thought, but he will play Tests and ODIs as well. So you say that he can rest a little. You should play Axar Patel and then you have got other spinning options as well. So that could be the thinking.”
The renowned commentator added picking four spinners for the WI tour makes a lot of sense as there will be help for the spinners.
“There are five T20Is and you are taking four spinners for that in the West Indies – makes a lot of sense. When you used to go to the West Indies earlier, you used to take a plethora of fast bowlers, when they also used to have fast bowlers but now they don’t have. Now generally you have slow and turning pitches there. So you have got four spinners.”
Chopra feels India will tick the right boxes in the spin department on the West Indies tour as they have got variety in their attack.
“You have two leg-spinners in Ravi Bishnoi and Yuzi Chahal. Then you have got two left-arm spinners in Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav, in which one is a left-arm leg-spinner and one is orthodox. The spin department is alright.”
India’s T20I squad: Ishan Kishan (wk), Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Tilak Varma, Surya Kumar Yadav (VC), Sanju Samson (wk), Hardik Pandya (C), Axar Patel, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh, Umran Malik, Avesh Khan, Mukesh Kumar.
