Former Indian legendary batter Sunil Gavaskar feels India is greatly missing the services of their talismanic all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja. The southpaw has been a consistent performer for the Indian team in the last couple of years and he has taken giant strides as a batter.
Jadeja has delivered the goods while batting down the order and he has done a fine job for his team. However, the left-hander had missed the tour of South Africa due to a right forearm injury. Jadeja also could not recover from the ongoing series against West Indies.
Meanwhile, India decided to open the innings with Rishabh Pant in the absence of Shikhar Dhawan. Rohit revealed that it is a permanent solution and Dhawan will open the innings when he returns to the squad. However, the Little Master was not happy with the move of giving an opening promotion to Rishabh Pant, who could not grab his opportunity.
“To be honest with you, I was surprised to see Rishabh Pant up the order because I have always felt that he is probably better off at 6 or 7, depending on how the team has gone. He should be the finisher. My feeling is that Rahul will partner Rohit as the opener, and Surya would probably bat at No. 4,” Gavaskar said mid-innings of the 2nd ODI.
“Then maybe at 5, you will have somebody like a Rishabh Pant and then a Washington Sundar. Don’t forget, India is feeling the absence of Ravindra Jadeja at No. 7, 8. He was scoring so many runs and hitting the big shots. Brilliant fielder and picks up wickets in the middle order. He is being missed greatly by this Indian team.”
Gavaskar also shed light on KL Rahul’s run-out as the right-hander was dismissed after scoring 49 runs. Rahul was going well and he had a good partnership with Suryakumar Yadav but a misunderstanding in the middle led to his wicket.
“You could perhaps sense that Rahul was looking at the fielder, and when he started that second run and looked, he thought that Surya was not coming back for the second. Surya had taken that first run pretty casually. He hadn’t rushed for it. And when Rahul was halfway down, Surya had barely left the batting crease to come back for the second. That is where that caused a little bit of confusion in Rahul’s mind,” said the legendary India batter.
The third and final ODI will be played at the same venue on Friday.
