Despite his small stature, the attacking middle-order batsman represents a powerful hitter down the order, even if it wasn’t always that way
Born: March 26, 1985
Role: Right-hand bat, right-arm offspin
Despite his small stature, the attacking middle-order batsman represents a powerful hitter down the order, even if it wasn’t always that way.
Initially targeting a breakthrough into the Test team, the 34-year-old piled on the runs for Maharashtra, scoring six fifties and a century in the 2008-09 first-class season, before finishing as the highest run-getter in the Ranji Trophy in 2013-14 with 1223 runs, including six centuries.
But heavy competition for Test spots saw Jadhav change tack and instead attempt a place in India’s limited-overs side, with a lot more success.
MS Dhoni wasn’t finishing games with the same regularity as he had in recent seasons, and Jadhav had already been touted as a potential complement to the former Indian captain after his explosive displays for the Delhi Daredevils and the Royal Challengers Bangalore in the IPL.
However, Jadhav endured a rather sporadic relationship with Team India 2014-16, appearing just 12 times before his career-changing series against England in January 2017.
His 120 in Pune against Eoin Morgan’s men saw him, alongside captain Virat Kohli, help the hosts chase down a target of 351 having been reduced to 63 for 4 at one stage.
However, while his stocky build does not allow him to be the most free-moving of fielders, Jadhav’s part-time, sidearm off-spin has proved to be a good containing and often wicket-taking mechanism, with batsmen finding it difficult to hit because of the low trajectory and lack of pace on the ball.
This was no more evident than his match-changing 2-22 against Bangladesh in the 2017 Champions Trophy semi-final at Edgbaston.
Now seemingly a regular with India and the Chennai Super Kings, the entertaining middle-order batsman will have his sights set on propelling India to intimidating scores this summer and, if he can replicate his 2017 achievements, he could be the key to a World Cup win.
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