Why Ravindra Jadeja is hard to drop, but his exclusion at Edgbaston wouldn’t be a surprise

The ongoing week’s been far from ideal for the Indian cricket team and its fans, with the Shubman Gill-led side suffering a second batting collapse inside three days on Monday and failing to defend a challenging 371-run target on Tuesday. Two days after conceding a 1-0 lead in the five-match Test series to England, Team India were dealt another blow with the news of Jasprit Bumrah getting ruled out of the second Test at Edgbaston quickly going viral.

The star pacer wasn’t expected to play more than three matches in the five-Test series anyway; however, the fact that his absence from Edgbaston makes the Ben Stokes-led hosts favourites to go 2-0 up certainly is worrying for the Indian team. That, after all, is the kind of scoreline a team does not bounce back from unless you’re part of Donald Bradman’s Australian team in the 1936-37 Ashes.

Spotlight on Jadeja after Headingley defeat

For a team to a lose a Test after finding themselves in a dominant position not once, but twice certainly leaves a lot to ponder over, and forces a team to make changes not just in terms of strategy but also in team combination.

And looking at how the Indians fared across five days in Leeds, it’s clear that while the top five is in red-hot form and, together with Bumrah, were responsible for stretching the match till the final hour of Day 5, there are major concerns with the bowling department as well as with the team’s fielding , especially after dropping six catches in the series opener.

Among those who have come under the scanner is senior all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja – who scored 36 runs across the two innings and collected just one wicket in the entire game – that of England captain Stokes when he was just about reverse-sweeping every delivery from the left-arm spinner and finally fell into a trap after several close-shaves.

It’s not as if he did not make any meaningful contribution whatsoever – Jadeja did remain unbeaten on 25 off 40 deliveries in the second innings, collecting two fours and a six and taking India past 360 until Prasidh Krishna was reportedly sledged into going for a wild slog off Shoaib Bashir’s bowling that resulted in a catch and brought the innings to a halt.

Jadeja, however, hardly made his presence felt as a bowler which, which only added to the pressure Bumrah was already under due to the lack of impact from Prasidh, Mohammed Siraj and Shardul Thakur in the pace department.

Despite going wicketless in the first innings, Jadeja was in a good rhythm and was slowing the flow of runs from his end at the very least. Multiple experts, however, have slammed him for not hitting the rough from the word go on a Day 5 Headingley wicket that had developed some wear and tear, especially using the width of the crease to create a challenging angle, until it was too late and the hosts were very much in sight of the finish line.

“He was (not bowling into the rough), and that baffles me, because for a man with so much experience, he must know what it means to bowl in the rough. He should’ve gone wide of the wicket, and bowl into the rough very early on,” Dinesh Karthik said on Cricbuzz following India’s defeat.

“I’m going to be critical of Jadeja because this is a final-day pitch. There’s a rough for him to play with. And in the end, I know there were a couple of chances there, but we have to expect more from Jadeja. These are not typical English conditions. This is not where the pitch has nothing to offer. I thought he didn’t use the rough enough against Ben Stokes,” Sanjay Manjrekar, an individual who has been at loggerheads with Jadeja in the past, said on JioHotstar.

It’s not just this match though; Jadeja’s numbers have undergone a steady dip with bat as well as with ball since the start of 2024, with the 36-year-old all-rounder’s batting and bowling average reading 28.66 (career: 34.75) and 27.55 (career: 24.59) respectively.

And to make matters even worse, Jadeja – one of the better fielders of the current generation – was among the fielders guilty of shelling catches at Headingley. Jadeja dropped Ben Duckett on 15 off Bumrah’s bowling early during England’s first innings, with the left-handed opener going on to score another 47.

The pacer had got rid of Zak Crawley in the very first over, and another wicket at that stage with less than 50 on the board might have spelled trouble for the hosts, especially considering the rhythm Bumrah was in at that stage.

Why Gill and Co need Jaddu at Edgbaston

Despite his shortcomings at Headingley, India can ill-afford to drop someone of Jadeja’s experience heading into the second Test against an English side confident of chasing any target down. This Indian team, after all, is short on experience following the retirements of the iconic trio of Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Ravichandran Ashwin.

And in such a scenario, seniors such as Jadeja, Bumrah, KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant will have a major role to play in guiding the team on the field, including captain Gill with his decision-making from time to time given he has a total leadership experience of just one match when it comes to Test cricket.

Also Read | Opinion: Let us all help Shubman Gill transition from boy-in-charge to man-in-command

Jadeja is also at his best when he is bowling in tandem with another spinner and perhaps bowling alongside someone like left-arm wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav might be the solution for the Indian team in their quest to level the series before Bumrah returns to action in the third Test at Lord’s.

Kuldeep’s inclusion isn’t some wild fan theory doing the rounds on the comments section of YouTube videos and on other social networking platforms such as X and Instagram. Spin icon Harbhajan Singh, who had bowled India to victory along with the legendary Anil Kumble at Headingley 23 years ago, had urged the Indian team to play both Jadeja and Kuldeep in the series opener at the same venue.

And following the stunning five-wicket loss, Kuldeep also received the backing of Sunil Gavaskar as well as the recently retired Ashwin for a place in the XI.

“I 100 percent believe that Kuldeep had a role, and he would be a decisive factor. If Kuldeep had played (in Leeds), it might have been a different game,” Ashwin said on his YouTube channel ‘Ash Ki Baat’.

Whether the Jadeja-Kuldeep pair is comparable to Kumble and Harbhajan of 2002 certainly is debatable, especially considering Kuldeep’s inexperience when it comes to the Test format, and even red-ball cricket overall.

However, with the team having already suffered a massive blow in the form of Bumrah’s unavailability for the second Test, the Jadeja-Kuldeep pair is certainly worth a shot. One could argue for the inclusion of spin-bowling all-rounder Washington Sundar, who will also strengthen the batting lineup.

However, looking back at the events of the Headingley Test, India are in dire need of an attacking, wicket-taking option who isn’t likely to leak runs by the bucket-loads. And while Kuldeep might be the answer to that riddle, Jadeja’s presence as the guiding figure for him and for the rest of the team certainly will help.