Are KL Rahul and Jadeja Match winners?

[R!TTER]

4 hours ago, maniac said:

 

no Jadeja is no where close. On his own a decent utility cricketer but not a match winner.

That's like the SRT vs Lara "debate" for tests - one a steady/great accumulator with very few dips & the other a record breaker extraordinaire!

 

For me Jadeja pips Stokes almost everywhere, except catching in the slips - he was the reason why Cook didn't retire in 2014 with that BS drop & we lost the series!

[Lord]

1 hour ago, Mjcricket said:

That Jadeja innings was worthless. Also, Reddy, Bumrah, Siraj played 137 balls and only scored 22 runs. What a shame. Rahul made Aksah play first ball of the last over on the fourth day, what a stupidity.

What stupidity? Night watchman is supposed to protect the batter

[Ultimate_Game]

23 hours ago, maniac said:

I know everyone is praising Jadeja’s knock or talking about Rahul’s comeback but how many of us had confidence that they will finish the game especially when it gets tight.

 

That’s because  these gave a history of choking in tight games.

 

They are the most experienced cricketers in the team but still give you 0 confidence.

 

maybe Jadeja has bowled some good match winning spells on dustbowls but that’s about it.

 

these guys are always very good utility players at best but not X factor match winning cricketers. 

 

Is this a rhetorical question with the answer a resounding NO.

 

Both can play support roles at best but aren't match-winners by themselves. If the team depends on either of them, you can bet your bottom dollar the team's gonna lose.

[vvvslaxman]

He can be called clutch in the sense he can protect the wicket and bat for long periods which is pretty much what most of the time we need. I would take 5 Jadejas over 5 Rahuls if you ask me. They can win a match together in a tight situation. ALl 5 Rahul will choke before seeing the end.

[Majestic]

In home conditions, Jadeja is a match winner.

 

overseas he is relying on his batting so a good support player.

 

Rahul is not good enough at home and overseas, he is likely to stay inconsistent and choke occasionally too.

 

Conclusion, Jadeja >> KL Rahul 

[Majestic]

4 hours ago, R!TTER said:

That's like the SRT vs Lara "debate" for tests - one a steady/great accumulator with very few dips & the other a record breaker extraordinaire!

 

For me Jadeja pips Stokes almost everywhere, except catching in the slips - he was the reason why Cook didn't retire in 2014 with that BS drop & we lost the series!

With bat, Jadeja is to Stokes what Kallis (avg 55) is to Lara(52). One is a statistician delight and other is a genuis but inconsistent.

[Gollum]

11 hours ago, maniac said:

Stokes played an ATG odi innings in the final.

 

Stokes scored a match winning 50 in a tricky chase in WT20 final.

 

Stokes has had impactful performances with both bat and ball in tests.

 

no Jadeja is no where close. On his own a decent utility cricketer but not a match winner.

 

also fielding is one flex Jadeja has because Indian team is filled with poor athletes but man-to-man Stokes is a gun athlete/ Fielder too.

 

for a impact player no one with even  half  a brain will pick Jadeja over Stokes

Bhai, don't confuse formats. In white ball I agree Jadeja has been a total waste of space. 

 

Just stick to test cricket, dig deep into Stokes' career and you will find nothing significant apart from a few performances at home and maybe in NZ (his real home), even in RSA his 250 was pointless. In SC he has been the worst ever player to step foot, even on Pak pattas. Just last year he made a complete fool of himself against a rubbish Pak team. 

 

Jadeja has been impactful in tests, forget India. He has had impact even in Australia where Poms have lost 14 of their last 15 matches, with one lucky draw. 

Edited July 16, 2025 by Gollum

[Gollum]

10 hours ago, cricspirit said:

 

 

Jadeja just needs to win something like yesterday match to be hyped by English people. Lords Heroics headline type. 

Don't care about English people or their media. They hyped up their mediocrities in football, equated Beckham with Zidane, Rooney with Ronaldo, kuch mila? Murray was part of their Big 4 with a career resume closer to Wawrinka's, and not 20% of the actual Big 3. 

 

They tried a similar stunt with Nigel Short in 1993 in the world championship match (FIDE-PCA split then and English sponsors arranged a fake match to try and get their local boy as world champ). Kasparov was so done with their media and Short hype that he ended Short's career and English chess as a whole in that match, the most brutal beatdown one can imagine, that too in London with Queen Elizabeth making opening move in one of the games. Famous PC incident from before the match announcement where media asked Kaspy who he would face and how the match would unfold....he replied, 'It will be Short and it will be short'. 

10 hours ago, cricspirit said:

Jadeja body of work is like a marathon runner.. not sexy.  Stokes is like a sprinter. Also You can clearly see Stokes focused on Glory.. he wants to be bowling out the last wicket even if tired.

Stokes may be a sprinter at home, overseas he is like a 90 year old grandpa attempting to run. We saw what sort of chicken he was last year in Ind/Pak. Australia will further expose him this Ashes, like they have been doing since 2013. 

Edited July 16, 2025 by Gollum

[Bigg Brother]

Jadeja had won us 2014 Lords test with his 2nd innings knock of 68 runs where he stitched 99 runs partnership with Bhuvi, but yeah yesterday's knock was atrocious. Mostly it was the hope that killed fans like us with Jaddu at crease but it was top order who lost us. Will take time to get over this loss.

[Lone Wolf]

Great take by Manju tbh.. felt the same watching him.  Emotional Indian fans won't see this even Gibbs called out Jadeja's tactics.

 

[vvvslaxman]

19 minutes ago, Lone Wolf said:

Great take by Manju tbh.. felt the same watching him.  Emotional Indian fans won't see this even Gibbs called out Jadeja's tactics.

 

Axar patel would have gone after bowling in that situation. He has long levers. Nice clean bat swing. Jadeja has no real power in his shots. He needs absolutely nail it to hit for six. Power hitter is ideal. But we are in a situation where power hitters won't even last that long in the first place against several examining spells from Archer and Stokes. He has the staying ability. Not hitting ability. Others don't have staying ability. 

[Lord]

13 hours ago, Majestic said:

In home conditions, Jadeja is a match winner.

 

overseas he is relying on his batting so a good support player.

 

Rahul is not good enough at home and overseas, he is likely to stay inconsistent and choke occasionally too.

 

Conclusion, Jadeja >> KL Rahul 

Even Stokes is that. Can't remember any match he won in Asia or even Aus

[StraightDrive26]

Pant was crucial. If he had played for even 30 minutes on the final day, England would have had no chance in the game. Indian top order needs to bat better. I felt Rahul did well but disappointed with Jaiswal. The only thing he needed to do was to survive the new ball and then score some runs. 

[Suhaan]

He should have gone after that mirpuri, few tonks would have brought us within touching distance

 

[vvvslaxman]

On 7/16/2025 at 9:30 PM, Suhaan said:

He should have gone after that mirpuri, few tonks would have brought us within touching distance

 

Yea.. I am not sure he is going to improve at this age. Even in IPL he tuk tuks till 19th over before even trying to hit out. He is still in our ODI set up which is a travesty.But at test level that is not a big weak area. How often you get into a position where you have to add 80 runs last 2 wickets.

[BacktoCricaddict]

4 hours ago, vvvslaxman said:

Yea.. I am not sure he is going to improve at this age. Even in IPL he tuk tuks till 19th over before even trying to hit out. He is still in our ODI set up which is a travesty.But at test level that is not a big weak area. How often you get into a position where you have to add 80 runs last 2 wickets.

While one can criticize the way he played, I don't think it was a selfish innings. After all, his method worked for a good while and was responsible for bringing the team so close in the first place. If he had tried to hit and couldn't execute, he would have been called "brainless." Why did he suddenly charge the bowler when the other way had brought the team so close? This is not T20 PP where intent justifies risk. 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 18, 2025 by BacktoCricaddict

[vvvslaxman]

1 hour ago, BacktoCricaddict said:

While one can criticize the way he played, I don't think it was a selfish innings. After all, his method worked for a good while and was responsible for bringing the team so close in the first place. If he had tried to hit and couldn't execute, he would have been called "brainless." Why did he suddenly charge the bowler when the other way had brought the team so close? This is not T20 PP where intent justifies risk. 

 

 

 

 

I wish every one of our team members learn about percentage cricket from him. 

[BacktoCricaddict]

31 minutes ago, vvvslaxman said:

I wish every one of our team members learn about percentage cricket from him. 

The thing is ... very rarely can the same guy be both surgeon and butcher. 

 

 

[goose]

the criticism of jadeja is identical to that faced by dravid in the late 90s

[Nagz]

KL is timid.

 

Jaddu has some mental fortitude left in him. His test spot is kinda vindicated after his valuable contributions in this series.