Ravindra Jadeja is ahead of Virat Kohli and Shubhman Gill in batting, KL Rahul is not even close

Rahul Tiwari

khelja|20-09-2024

The morning of the second day of the Chennai Test match between India and Bangladesh did not prove to be good for Ravindra Jadeja. Jadeja, who along with Ravichandran Ashwin pulled Team India out of a difficult situation in the first innings, had a chance to complete his century but he could not do so. Jadeja, who played well and scored 86 runs on the first day, could not add a single run the next day and missed his fifth Test century. Jadeja may not have been able to complete his century but with this innings he once again showed how reliable a batsman he has become in Test cricket for Team India and his better figures than the great batsmen like Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara testify to this.

Handled the innings with Ashwin

On the first day of the Chennai Test, when Team India had lost 6 wickets for just 144 runs, Ravindra Jadeja came to the crease. Before him, experienced batsmen like Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant and KL Rahul had already returned to the pavilion. At such a time, Jadeja along with Ashwin handled the innings. On one hand, Ashwin completed a brilliant century on his home ground, while Jadeja also came close to a century. On the second day, this partnership of 199 runs broke with Jadeja's wicket.

If Jadeja had scored this century, it would have been the fifth century of his career. Despite this, in the last 4 years, Jadeja has continued to take Team India out of difficult situations by performing brilliantly with his bat. The biggest thing is that he has scored these runs in almost every situation. These runs have come when batsmen like Kohli, Pujara, Rahane, Rahul and Iyer have been continuously failing. The names written here have their main job to bat but in the last 4 years their batting average has also been less than Jadeja.

Heavy on Kohli-Gill and Rahul

If we look at the statistics from 1 September 2020 till now, Kohli has scored 1631 runs at an average of 34.70, Pujara has scored 1355 runs at an average of 30.11, Rahul has scored 873 runs at an average of 32.33, Shreyas Iyer has scored 811 runs at 36.86 and Rahane has scored 874 runs at an average of 25.70 and even Shubman Gill has scored 1524 runs at an average of 35.44. Compared to these great batsmen, Jadeja, who bats at number six and seven, has scored 1253 runs at an average of 39.15. In this, he has scored 3 centuries and 7 half-centuries. That is, he has scored more than 50 runs in an innings 10 times.

Among the batsmen mentioned above, only Gill has scored 4 centuries, while Rahul has scored 3 centuries. Only Pujara has scored more than 50 runs 11 times, while Kohli has scored 10 times. Overall, there has been no batsman who can defeat Jadeja on every front. Apart from these runs, Jadeja has also taken 83 Test wickets at an average of 22.51 in the same period, while none of these players have been able to take a single wicket. This proves how incomplete Team India can be without Jadeja at this time.

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