Should Jadeja play as a specialist #3 for the rest of his career?

[cricspirit]

No.

 

We need a proper no.3 

 

Find a solid batter. Dravid/Pujara or better as in scoring rate not necessarily quality. Don't think it's possible to find Dravid level again. Concentration , Aptitude and will to fight it out 

 

 

[R!TTER]

2 hours ago, lemsip said:

Even Rohit and Kohli  are in the top 5 run scorers of the last 5 years.

Barely & Kohli's not in the top 5 anymore!

Primary team India

Start of match date greater than or equal to 1 Jan 2021

Qualifications runs scored greater than or equal to 1000

Ordered by batting average (descending)

Overall figures

Player	Span	Mat	Inns	NO	Runs	HS	Ave	BF	SR	100	50	0	4s	6s
YBK Jaiswal	2023-2025	21	40	2	2018	214*	53.10	3037	66.44	5	11	3	243	40
RR Pant	2021-2025	31	56	4	2447	146	47.05	3195	76.58	6	14	2	270	67
Shubman Gill	2021-2025	33	61	4	2398	269	42.07	3850	62.28	8	7	5	258	43
RA Jadeja	2021-2025	32	50	5	1638	175*	36.40	3320	49.33	3	9	4	167	22
RG Sharma	2021-2024	35	63	3	2160	161	36.00	3925	55.03	6	8	2	257	36
KL Rahul	2021-2025	24	45	2	1487	137	34.58	3050	48.75	4	7	3	186	12
V Kohli	2021-2025	36	63	3	1912	186	31.86	3868	49.43	3	8	5	207	8
CA Pujara	2021-2023	24	44	3	1292	102*	31.51	3331	38.78	1	10	4	169	2
R Ashwin	2021-2024	33	50	2	1085	113	22.60	1986	54.63	2	3	4	128	9

[Lord]

No. 5-6 is best for him. 

[vvvslaxman]

8 minutes ago, Lord said:

No. 5-6 is best for him. 

He can be used as a floater.On good batting decks his low risk style batting is perfect. Having said that his batting competely depends on who is at the other end. It has to be a specialist batsman or tailender with batting capabilities. Otherwise his usefulness goes down. . He cannot farm the strike and add more valuable runs with tail.

Edited July 7, 2025 by vvvslaxman

[Lord]

Just now, vvvslaxman said:

He can be used as a floater.On good batting decks his low risk style batting is perfect. Having said that his batting competely depends on who is at the other end. It has to be a specialist batsman or tailender with batting capabilities. Otherwise his usefulness . He cannot famr the strike and add more valuable runs with tail.

With tail you need a big hitter who can maximise the 4-5 balls before taking a single on last ball. Jadeja tried that in the past and got out and bashed. 

 

At 5-6 he can set up the game nicely. Can swap positions with Pant if needed 

[Majestic]

Naah, 3 is too high for him and he won’t be around for long so we will again be in dire state looking for a permanent no.3. Better to mould a youngster there. Sai is my bet for that, give him a run of 3 tests and then take a decision. 
 

jadeja can bat at 6, which means above the other all rounders. So, this way we can maximise his stat padding a bit more. Reddy at 7 and Sundar at 8 are better bets. If the pitch is spin friendly, play Kuldeep instead of Reddy maybe. Some may say going with 3 spinners overseas but in reality two of them are batting A/R in these conditions and we anyways still have 3 pacers. If it is overcast, obviously bring Reddy and strengthen the batting.

Edited July 8, 2025 by Majestic

[Majestic]

Jadeja should play the WTC 2025-27 but after that he should decide to take retirement. He won’t be able to help us a lot purely with his batting and economical bowling overseas. This WTC, we have a lot of matches to be played in Asia so stick with him but next WTC, we will have tours to SA and Aus and we should focus on Sundar and other spinners soon.

[Adamant]

Really impressed by how Jadeja is going these days with the bat, he takes no riska and still ends up with 50+ str rate, criticising him for batting with the tail is unfair.

 

Number 3 is a bit too high and I don’t see Gambhir doing that but he is definitely getting shortchanged because of his batting position.  He gets to bat with the tail and has duties to protect them, also our tail is woeful so he isn’t even getting the chance to show his skills and score more runs.

 

Btw he is definitely good enough as a specialist batsman too, there should be no doubt about it, he averages 37+ with the bat away from home in last 5 years, that’s as good as any specialist batsman.

 

 

[Gollum]

He will be fine at #3, prefer him over Nair.

[deepdynamo]

K Nair is stop gap but Jadeja at 3 won't cut it as well.

 

In any case, Jadeja is playing his last WTC cycle so let him play at 6/7 and bowl us to victories in home tests.

[cricspirit]

2 minutes ago, deepdynamo said:

K Nair is stop gap but Jadeja at 3 won't cut it as well.

 

In any case, Jadeja is playing his last WTC cycle so let him play at 6/7 and bowl us to victories in home tests.

 

We don't know if this is his last cycle. Other seniors have stayed well past their date. But they were superstars.

 

Jadeja will be dropped as soon as he stopped batting well for few games where he doesnt take wickets. Could be this cycle too.

 

But if he is batting well and not retiring,  I do not think he will be dropped for age. He very fit and can carry on till he contributes.

 

He should focus only on Tests and IPL though. Retire from ODI.

[Gollum]

Don't tell me he doesn't have the batting chops.

 

Elite defence, elite temperament, elite shot selection, loads of patience.

Edited July 27, 2025 by Gollum

[Lord]

1 hour ago, Gollum said:

Don't tell me he doesn't have the batting chops.

 

Elite defence, elite temperament, elite shot selection, loads of patience.

Playing new ball is completely different. Let's not spoil what's working.

 

Washi looks a better option. Has done it in FC and has the penchant for big knocks 

Edited July 27, 2025 by Lord

[kepler37b]

WAY Back in 2008, warne called Jadeja as "Star in Making"

 

https://www.hindustantimes.com/cricket/when-shane-warne-identified-rockstar-ravindra-jadeja-as-special-talent-superstar-in-the-making-during-ipl-2008-101646473437505.html

 

He was spot on 

[Gollum]

Also high time we stop mocking his 3 300s in Ranji. It is clear the guy has incredible temperament and patience, so piling on runs against Ranji level bowlers will be easy mode for him. He may be even better than Sachin, Kohli at that level because of his ruthlessness, other guys may get bored....but Jadeja can keep batting and batting risk free. 

 

Maybe he underachived as a batsman because of bowling load. And white ball ruining his game. 

[Lord]

3 minutes ago, kepler37b said:

WAY Back in 2008, warne called Jadeja as "Star in Making"

 

https://www.hindustantimes.com/cricket/when-shane-warne-identified-rockstar-ravindra-jadeja-as-special-talent-superstar-in-the-making-during-ipl-2008-101646473437505.html

 

He was spot on 

Not according to ICF

[Lord]

4 minutes ago, Gollum said:

Also high time we stop mocking his 3 300s in Ranji. It is clear the guy has incredible temperament and patience, so piling on runs against Ranji level bowlers will be easy mode for him. He may be even better than Sachin, Kohli at that level because of his ruthlessness, other guys may get bored....but Jadeja can keep batting and batting risk free. 

 

Maybe he underachived as a batsman because of bowling load. And white ball ruining his game. 

If he didn't play white ball, he'd had a longer career and would be respected more. 

 

Our selectors can't seperate formats 

[goose]

today's batting order was perfect with pant coming in next. 

[vvvslaxman]

INdian batsmen performance  in England

 

Performance of our trimurthis lol. By the way Jadeja has scored exactly the same number of runs Kohli has scored in England, For the record MSD has crossed 50s more than  Kohli, Rahane, Pujara in ENgland. What an over-rated middle order in English conditions.

 

Edited July 28, 2025 by vvvslaxman

[kepler37b]

8 hours ago, vvvslaxman said:

INdian batsmen performance  in England

 

Performance of our trimurthis lol. By the way Jadeja has scored exactly the same number of runs Kohli has scored in England, For the record MSD has crossed 50s more than  Kohli, Rahane, Pujara in ENgland. What an over-rated middle order in English conditions.

 

GOAT Dravid.  

 

BTW, surprised NOT to find VVS in this list. was he so bad?