Ravindra Jadeja is in identical bracket as Ben Stokes, says Deep Dasgupta

Image Source : GETTY IMAGES Ravindra Jadeja
India all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja had a fruitful outing on the MCG as India thumped hosts Australia by eight wickets to stage the four-Test sequence 1-1. Jadeja, taking part in his first Test of the sequence, picked up three wickets in Melbourne because the Ajinkya Rahane-led Indian camp got here again strongly after their horror batting collapse of Adelaide Test.

Jadeja, within the first innings, scored his fifteenth Test fifty whereas including 121 runs with stand-in skipper Rahane. The duo’s century stand helped India in reaching a commanding 131-run lead over the hosts. The Jamnagar-born additionally turned solely the third Indian participant to play 50 matches throughout all three codecs of the game. 

The 32-year-old left-hander additionally had a superb white-ball sequence towards the Aussies the place he scored an unbeaten 66 within the third and last ODI, placing up 150 runs with Hardik Pandya for the sixth wicket. This was additionally the most important sixth wicket stand in ODIs in Australia. Jadeja once more got here to the rescue within the first T20I at Manuka Oval the place he notched up unbeaten 44 earlier than he was changed by Yuzvendra Chahal as concussion substitute.

After Jadeja’s stellar show in Australia, former India wicketkeeper Deep Dasgupta has mentioned that the all-rounder, at current, is in the identical bracket as Ben Stokes. According to Dasgupta, Jadeja has performed higher than numerous batsmen previously two years. 

“Jadeja changing Virat Kohli within the 2nd Test was one of many issues in my thoughts due to the way in which he has batted within the final couple of years. Generally, folks take into consideration Jadeja that he’s a bowler who can bat, somebody who hasn’t capitalised a lot in Test cricket.

“But I always thought he has actually done better than a lot of batsmen in the last couple of years. He’s getting runs across all formats, and also as recently as last year he was the world’s top-ranked Test bowler,” Deep Dasgupta informed Sports Today.

Interestingly, Jadeja, at the moment ranked No.3 in ICC Test all-rounder rankings, has a greater batting common than Ben Stokes and Shakib Al Hasan who’re sitting on the first and second spot respectively. Since 2016, Jadeja has the very best batting common (46.29) and finest bowling common (24.97) within the all-rounders’ record. Stokes, at the moment sitting on the numero uno spot, has a batting common of 42.34 and a bowling common of 27.59 within the conventional format of the sport.

“As of now the way he’s batting he definitely is (in the same bracket as Ben Stokes). Even during the IPL I actually said why not him at No. 4 for CSK. He’s got a couple of triple hundreds in domestic cricket, getting runs there is not easy,” mentioned Dasgupta.

“For Saurashtra, he bats at No. 4 but for India, he comes in at 7 or 8. Somehow I felt that he never took his batting seriously enough. In 2017 he was dropped from the side but and I think what kind of prompted him was the fact that he wanted to make himself more useful to the team, not just with the ball but with the bat as well. Because Jadeja, I know for a fact, always wanted to be a batsman,” he added.