3 reasons why India should still pick Ravindra Jadeja over Axar Patel in ODI cricket

The veteran Indian all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja is not in the action in international cricket for a long time since he sustained a freaking knee injury during the Asia Cup 2022. Subsequently, the 34-year-old was ruled out of the 20-20 World Cup 2022 played in Australia. Team India missed Jadeja’s services in the Test series against Bangladesh followed by a few white-ball assignments against Sri Lanka and New Zealand.

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Meanwhile, the Indian team management opted to give a go-ahead to the star all-rounder Axar Patel. The 28-year-old played a vital role in a few of the T20I clashes for India both with the bat and the ball. He also won the ‘player of the award for his brilliant performances in the three-match T20I series against Sri Lanka.

But still, there is a notion among cricket fans and experts that Axar isn’t a perfect fit as a replacement for Ravindra Jadeja in the ODI format. With said that, here we’ll put light on the three reasons that make it quite obvious to have Ravindra Jadeja in the ODI setup of India instead of his state mate Axar Patel.

Here are the three reasons why India should still pick Ravindra Jadeja over Axar Patel in ODI cricket.

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Efficiency against the Pace Bowling

Ravindra Jadeja

The most important aspect from the point of view of an all-rounder is his batting capabilities against the premium pace bowlers of the opponent teams. It is because the all-rounder’s responsibility is very crucial in the all-important bilateral clashes or major/marquee multi-nation international tournaments.

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Speaking of the comparison between Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel about their efficiency to play pace bowling, the former has always been dominating in comparison to his 28-year-old teammate from the same state. Jadeja has scored 1674 runs in 109 innings specifically against the pacers in the 50-overs format with an average of 31.00 including 148 boundaries and 28 sixes to his name.

Whereas, on the other hand, Axar has appeared only in 27 innings against the pacers to score only 235 runs with a poor average of 13.82.

Fielding skills in crucial moments

Ravinder Jadeja

Almost 11 years back, former legendary Indian skipper MS Dhoni happened to deliver a statement during the CB series in Australia. He stated that a good fielder is always a quintessential element for a team in ODI cricket.

“A bowler takes wickets for you, a batter score runs for you but an excellent fielder always saves runs for you which is above all to win the matches in the limited-overs format,” said Dhoni in a press conference while explaining the then rotation policy of team management during the tri-series in Australia.

With said that, Jadeja’s contributions in the fielding can’t be ignored as he has proved his worth on several occasions with amazing direct hits on the stump while fielding in the deep regions. So, it is very necessary to prefer to consider a good fielder in the squad given the fact that the cricketing calendar has entered into a World Cup year.

Wicket taking ability

Ravindra Jadeja

Whenever team management considers giving a nod to an all-rounder, one of the vital parameters that need to be looked at is his wicket-taking ability with the ball. It is very important for the team in a situation when their core bowlers are having an off day at the office.

Talking about the comparison of wicket-taking skills between Axar Patel and Ravindra Jadeja, the latter is way far ahead of Axar in the same. Jadeja has scalped a total of 189 wickets with the ball in 171 ODI appearances with the best bowling figures of 5/36 in an ODI inning. On the contrary, Axar is lacking an experience in the same skillset as he has taken only 56 wickets in 49 ODI appearances with only 18 maiden overs to his name and the best bowling figure of 3/24 in an ODI inning.