Kamal Ghorui
INDORE: India’s maiden ODI home series defeat to New Zealand here at the Holkar Stadium saw Virat Kohli, who smashed 124 off 108 balls in the last match, come out with flying colours. However, two other ageing modern-day greats are firmly under the scanner. Ravindra Jadeja and Rohit Sharma had a poor series, which doesn’t help with younger options snapping at their heels.Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!The 37-year-old Jadeja went wicketless. In fact, in his last five ODIs, the Saurashtra allrounder has only managed to take one wicket. Jadeja’s leftarm spin, which once both stopped the run flow and provided crucial breakthroughs, seems to have lost its bite. Remember, T20I vice-captain Axar Patel, a like-for-like replacement, is waiting in the wings.
Sreevats Goswami, who shared the dressing room with Jadeja in the 2008 U-19 World Cup that India won under Virat Kohli’s leadership, even posted on social media that the third ODI against New Zealand may well have been Jadeja’s last in the 50-over format. “We should celebrate him before he silently exits, because India play their next ODI only in June against England in England,” Goswami posted.Apart from his bowling, Jadeja has failed to make any significant contribution with the bat as well.Jadeja and fellow spinner Kuldeep Yadav’s inability to grab wickets in the middleovers was one of the key reasons for India being vanquished 2-1 by the Black Caps.
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Meanwhile, the debate around whether Rohit would play in the 2027 ODI World Cup was supposed to have ended after he put together a series of good scores against Australia (away) and then South Africa (home). That run included a match-winning century (121*) against Australia in Sydney, apart from three fifties. One even got to see a slimmed-down version of Rohit, indicating that he had worked a lot on his fitness.The 38-year-old’s decision to continue in ODIs has meant that left-hander Yashavi Jaiswal, who scored his maiden ODI century in the third ODI against South Africa in Vizag last Dec, has had to cool his heels in the dugout.Rohit will turn 39 on April 30 and is he motivated enough to keep playing only one format in international cricket?However, captain Shubman Gill defended his opening partner, saying, “Rohit is in terrific form, right through from the Australia to the South Africa series. You won’t always be able to convert the starts that you get.”
