Ravindra Jadeja under the ODI glare: At the centre of No. 5 all-rounder debate for 2027 World Cup

Ravindra Jadeja, right, with head coach Gautam Gambhir during a training session. (PTI Photo)

RAJKOT: It’s festive season in Ravindra Jadeja’s hometown. The markets are teeming with locals preparing for Sankranti and the kite festival on Wednesday, the day of the second ODI. For Jadeja, though, it’s a different kind of hustle: holding on to the spot of India’s premier ODI spin-bowling allrounder ahead of Axar Patel.Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW! Jadeja has been a constant during the optional training sessions on match eve. On Tuesday, his usual carefree demeanour took a back seat. He batted in the nets for close to an hour before bowling an extended spell. With the 2027 ODI World Cup about 20 months away, there is pressure on him to reestablish his credentials.

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TOI understands Axar Patel is currently the preferred choice for that tournament. He isn’t playing the ongoing ODI series because the selectors, it is learnt, want to preserve him for the upcoming T20I series in the lead-up to the T20 World Cup next month. Effectively, Jadeja is on trial to stay relevant in India’s ODI scheme of things. It’s also part of a wider plan: building a pool of backups for each position for 2027. The team management leans towards having a lefthanded batter in the middle order and also someone from the top order who can offer a few steady overs. That brought Ayush Badoni into the picture once Washington Sundar was injured in Vadodara on Sunday.

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If KL Rahul continues as the No. 1 wicketkeeper-batter over Rishabh Pant, it eventually becomes a shootout between Jadeja and Axar for the No. 5 slot. Of late, Jadeja’s diminishing power-hitting hasn’t escaped the discerning eye. Axar’s rapid evolution as a batter had prompted the team management to push him up the order in the Champions Trophy when Jadeja was also in the XI on slow, turning pitches. Since the World Cup is slated to be played on South Africa’s pacier, bouncier pitches, there may be little scope to fit in both, with Hardik Pandya likely to come in and bat at No. 7. Batting coach Sitanshu Kotak refused to comment on where Jadeja stands in his white-ball career. Jadeja, though, couldn’t have asked for a better venue to regain his attacking touch than Rajkot.Opportunities on the bench Kotak, however, asserted that Yashasvi Jaiswal and Ruturaj Gaikwad played in the last ODI series against South Africa only because Shubman Gill and Shreyas Iyer were not available. “The positive is that both of them got hundreds. But they will have to wait for their opportunities,” he said. There’s an underlying concern in the ranks: the decreasing number of ODIs played every year. As per the current schedule, India have only about 25 ODIs left before the World Cup. Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli play only one format and KL Rahul too is dependent on the format to keep his white-ball career going. “It’s very hard to convince the likes of Rohit, Kohli and Rahul to sit out. They will always argue that they get to play far and few between to build a rhythm. Prior to the home ODI season, it was discussed that Pant and Rahul will be rotated. Pant could have got a look-in this series if he didn’t get injured,” sources close to TOI said. “There are a lot of changes in the playing conditions for the ODI World Cup. Hopefully, we will get more ODIs after this T20 World Cup,” Kotak said.

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