Deep Dasgupta, former Indian wicket-keeper heaped praise on all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja and even went on to compare him with England superstar all-rounder Ben Stokes after his commendable performance in India’s victory in the Boxing Day Test against Australia earlier this week.
Deep Dasgupta said Ravindra Jadeja has always been a talented batsman but he never took his batting seriously until 2016-17 when his batting averages was more than 35 in all the years since 2016. His average was over 40 since 2017.
Deep Dasgupta: Ravindra Jadeja Has Done Better Than A Lot Of Batsmen Getting Runs Across All Formats In Last 2-3 Years
Ravindra Jadeja’s numbers in the longest format have been among the best in the last four years. He has the highest batting of 46.29 and bowling average of 24.97 among all-rounders in Test cricket since 2016, with Ben Stokes who had an average of 42.34 and 27.59 and Bangladesh’s Shakib Al Hasan who averaged 38.48 and 26.03 respectively behind him. Deep Dasgupta thought he has done better than a lot of other batsmen in last 2-3 years.
“Jadeja replacing Virat Kohli in the 2nd Test was one of the things in my mind because of the way he has batted in the last couple of years. Generally people think about Jadeja that he is a bowler who can bat, someone who hasn’t capitalized much in Test cricket.
“But I always thought he has actually done better than a lot of batsmen in the last couple of years. He’s getting runs across all formats, and also as recently as last year he was the world’s top-ranked Test bowler,” Deep Dasgupta told Sports Today.
Ravindra Jadeja showcased his all-round skills in the second Test in Melbourne, scoring 57 crucial runs while batting alongside centurion stand-in skipper Ajinkya Rahane and picked 3 wickets in the match, including 2 in the second innings as India beat Australia by 8 wickets to level the four-match series 1-1.
Deep Dasgupta: Ravindra Jadeja Always Wanted To Be A Batsman And Is In the Same Bracket As Ben Stokes
Ben Stokes has scored eight Test hundreds and averages 43.3 with the bat besides taking 110 wickets at 28 over the last four and a half years. Except in 2018 and his early years 2013-15, Ben Stokes averaged above 40 with the bat every year. In 2020, he has an exceptional year averaging 58.27 with bat and 18.74 with the ball in 7 Tests scoring 2 tons and taking 19 wickets.
“As of now the way he’s batting he definitely is (in the same bracket as Ben Stokes). Even during the IPL I actually said why not him at No. 4 for CSK. He’s got a couple of triple hundreds in domestic cricket, getting runs there is not easy.”
“For Saurashtra he bats at No. 4 but for India he comes in at 7 or 8. Somehow I felt that he never took his batting seriously enough. In 2017 he was dropped from the side but and I think what kind of prompted him was the fact that he wanted to make himself more useful to the team, not just with the ball but with the bat as well. Because Jadeja, I know for a fact, always wanted to be a batsman.”
“He always had the skill set with the bat but earlier on he would play terrible shots and get out. But now he’s putting a price to his wicket, he’s thinking and batting like a batsman and that I think has changed in his batting in the last few years,” Dasgupta said.
Ravindra Jadeja has played exactly 50 Tests amassing 1926 Test runs averaging 35.67 and picked 216 wickets averaging 24.49. Ben Stokes of England played 67 Tests amassing 4428 runs averaging 37.85 and taken 158 wickets averaging 31.41. Shakib Al Hasan of Bangladesh has played 56 Tests amassing 3862 runs averaging 39.41 and also taken 210 wickets averaging 31.13.