Is Jadeja honestly the best ODI spinner we have?

[SecondSlip]

Hi everyone!  

As you all know, both our main spinners Ashwin and Jadeja have been very poor in ODIs for the past couple of years. Since they both are finger spinners, they mostly fail in modern day ODI cricket which is played on good batting tracks, as we saw in the recent Champion's Trophy. It can be argued that our spinners are the main reason why we failed to defend our Champion's Trophy but I won't discuss that in this thread since that is up for another debate at another time  

However, I want to take a deep look into the career of Jadeja the ODI bowler and want to ask some questions about it. Hopefully my fellow ICFer's can help me with some answers! So here it goes: 

Is Jadeja honestly good enough to play as the main front line spin bowler in the ODI team? In my opinion, I refuse to believe that he is and I will tell you why. 

Ravindra Jadeja has a career bowling average of 35.70 in ODI cricket. Even Ashwin who is barely rated at all in ODI cricket averages 33, that is 2 points less than Jadeja! 

These are Jadeja's bowling averages against the top 8 teams that played in the recently concluded Champion's Trophy: 

56.22 vs Australia (23 matches)
47.14 vs Bangladesh (9 matches) 
24.27 vs England (22 matches) 
73.00 vs New Zealand (8 matches) 
36.00 vs Pakistan (8 matches) 
36.90 vs South Africa (9 matches) 
41.83 vs Sri Lanka (27 matches) 

As you can see above, the only big team that Jadeja has a good bowling record against is Team England. He averages 36 and above against the rest of the teams that played in the CT. So once again, I'm asking my question, Is Jadeja India's best spin option for ODIs? Jadeja on his best day will end up with figures like 2/49. Surely there has to be better options out there than this? 

I believe that India should give long ropes to wicket taking attacking spinners like Kuldeep Yadav & Yuzvendra Chahal. Wrist spinners like them will be key for us if we want to go far during our World Cup campaign in 2019. 

Source: http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/player/234675.html?class=2;template=results;type=bowling
 

[Tendu_10]

jaddu is living off his test exploits n odi exploits 4 yrs ago time to drop him.

 

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[Silva]

Bowling is in the same category as raina, jadhav and yuvi. His bowling is good for a 5th bowler but they are playing him as as a bowling specialist ahead of yadav, shami, mishra, umesh and chahal which makes no sense. He even played in t20 cup ahead of BK which is total madness. It would be like playing stuart binny ahead of BK, bumrah or shami. Except atleast binny can be a usefull batsman compared to jadeja. 

[Vilander]

Jadeja and Ashwin are a phenomena in tests esp in SC conditions, they get come low down the order and demoralize opposition by their batting and then strangle and take wickets in buckets. Awesome to have them in test team. 

 

in ODI they are ****. 

[cricketfan28]

No.

[nevada]

I think spin bowlers(any pure bowler infact) should be picked for ODIs only if they are the wicket taking type. Restrictive bowling just won't cut it. At best you can hope for 4-5 quiet overs by a part timer. Even that is very difficult because the opposition is not dumb, they know who the weaker bowler is and will attack him. I feel conflicted about picking Hardik also because he is not there yet where he can be picked purely as a batter or a bowler. Of course, competent allrounders don't grow on trees and need to be given time to develop. They should send him up the order once in a while to allow him to develop into a better, reliable batter. As a bowler, you only have 10 overs and each expensive over only builds the pressure but as a batter in a ODI, I think there is plenty of time to turn a tentative innings into a great one. 

[SK_IH]

jadeja the all rounder 

[Haarkarjeetgaye]

Yes. He has a sword when batting and mixie while bowling.

[wanted_desi]

If we had Shami and Umesh instead of two part time spinners (Ashwin and Jadeja), we would have won CT. We lost from weak side. 

[Lannister]

The Indian selectors don't know to differentiate between LOIs and Test Cricket. This is what happens when you appoint old hags from different era as selectors. 

[Pollack]

Had we not prepared spin friendly pitches more in last few years Jadeja and Ashwin would have been pretty average bowlers even in tests. Harbhajan and Kumble were better than these two even if stats or ranking says otherwise. 

[maniac]

He is the greatest "manufactured" cricketer of all time....was he originally picked for being the best spinner in the country? serious question

[Cricketics]

He is not the best spinner. He is okayish and hence we need to try others.

 

Unless he was a special odi talent then I would reserve, he is absolutely mirror image of his test career, been ordinary.

[Sgattick10]

His fielding is the only area where he deserves selection.

[CoverDrive]

He will do well to spend some time in domestic. He did that well to come back well in test. Krunal Pandya should be tried

[Pollack]

1 billion population with cricket craze and we can only find Jadeja--The all rounder.

Don't understand what dhoni saw in him to allow Jadeja to make this long despite being mediocre for most part of his career.

[Tattieboy]

He is a natural athlete who turns his arm over not a specialist spinner.

 

He is a failed young batsman who had lots of talent but no application. You can see in his action, such as arm sometimes so low it's nearly trailing the ground that he has never been a specialist spinner. 

 

 

[RAZPOR]

Nope ,we need Krunal Pandya in Odis,also vijay shankar can help balance.

[kubrickian]

Jadeja has lost his form in terms of bowling. I remember he used to be very tough to play on these type of pitches in the past. Just doesnt have that type of control or confidence anymore. He has always been a slogger in terms of batting who could score a few quick runs if things went his way. So not surprised about his poor batting in recent times in ODIs.

[The Realist]

Bits and pieces player in limited overs cricket. Had a massive long rope and never really delivered.

 

Time to move on.