Hyderabad: Former India batter and renowned commentator Aakash Chopra on Wednesday asserted that all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja is not the finisher in the Indian team but it is not accepted by the team management.
Jadeja has played only two matches for India since the 2022 T20 World Cup held in Australia and he managed to muster only 23 runs from those two outings. In fact, he has managed to score 480 runs from 36 T20I innings at a strike rate of a mere 125.3. However, he had a decent outing in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 for Chennai Super Kings (CSK), having amassed 267 runs at a strike rate of 142.78.
"Ravindra Jadeja is not your finisher. We trust him in that role, but he isn't very good at it. We haven't even accepted the fact that he isn't a good finisher and that is a problem. The second concern is Shivam Dube's form, which is cold right now. A thumbs up for us is Hardik Pandya's form. He's back. He's looking really good while batting. Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, and of course, Rishabh Pant and Suryakumar Yadav, it's all looking great. The two areas of concern are Shivam Dube and Ravindra Jadeja with the bat. Another concern is our fielding, which I think could be problematic," said Aakash on his show 'Aakashwani'.
In the warm-up match against Bangladesh, despite Virat Kohli being unavailable, Sanju Samson opened the innings with captain Rohit Sharma instead of trying out Yashasvi Jaiswal at the top. Notably, Jaiswal didn't even get a chance to feature in the game.
"Virat Kohli will start with Rohit Sharma, which means there's no place for Yashasvi Jaiswal. The hope was to have a left-hander open the innings with Yashasvi playing, but they won't keep him in the XI because only one between him and Shivam Dube can play and they're going with Dube," added Aakash.
On the other hand, Aakash picked Shivam Dube and Axar Patel both in the playing XI over the specialist spinner Yuzvendra Chahal for the game against Ireland, which will be played at Nassau County International Cricket Stadium in New York on Wednesday.
"At No. 3, Rishabh Pant has a big chance to play because India needs a left-hander. This means Suryakumar Yadav will be at four. Depending on the next wicket, if a left-hander falls, it'll be Shivam Dube next. If a right-hander falls, it'll be Hardik Pandya next, that's your six. At seven and eight, I think it'll be Jadeja and Axar Patel. After that, you'll have Kuldeep Yadav who should 100% play... Then the two fast bowlers, Arshdeep Singh and Jasprit Bumrah. Arshdeep bowled really well in the first warmup game and Bumrah is Bumrah," he added.
Rohit Sharma and his team will look to start their campaign on a positive note and win the coveted trophy after a 17-year gap. India's next match is against their arch-rivals Pakistan on May 9, followed by matches against co-hosts USA on June 12 and Canada on June 15 to conclude their Group A fixtures.
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