England v India 2014: Should MS Dhoni pick Ravindra Jadeja for the series opener?

Ravindra Jadeja

Ravindra Jadeja’s career as an international cricketer has soared to such heights that the headline of this article might look a bit harsh on the lad from Saurashtra.

After a low-profile start to his international career, Jadeja has settled down well in India’s limited-overs’ set-up as a spinning all-rounder. Subsequently, the utility that he rendered to MS Dhoni and Team India in the One Day Internationals got him a breakthrough in the longest format of the game, too, in which he has done reasonably well. He fits into Dhoni’s scheme of things perfectly and plays his role to perfection.

He is largely accurate and economical with his left-arm orthodox bowling, more than capable of producing telling cameos lower down the order, and saves crucial runs in the field: a package that fits the bill perfectly for the Indian skipper.

Having a superficial look at his 8-match Test career, you got to say that there’s a palpable difference in his performance levels when India play Test matches back home as against when they travel overseas. While 27 of his 36 Test wickets have come in India, he was handled pretty easily in South Africa and New Zealand by batsmen who are generally not adept at playing spin bowling. And, even with the bat, Jadeja hasn’t given you the impression that he can be trusted to do a job when the Team needs it the most, so far.

Dhoni, therefore, needs to reconsider his policy of playing an overseas Test match with three seamers and a spinning all-rounder: a combination that hasn’t reaped much success for India in the years gone by.

Horses for courses:

The Indian team and Dhoni should, in all cost, look to go into the first Test match with four seamers and use Ravichandran Ashwin as the spinning all-rounder, who renders you 30s and 40s with the bat lower down the order. It would be bonkers to ask Jadeja and Ashwin to bowl 30+ overs on day 1 of a Test match in England, so the idea of 3 seamers and 2 spinners gets ruled out straightaway; something which even the Indian team, given the way how they have approached in the previous Tests abroad, won’t entertain.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ishant Sharma, and Mohammed Shami will, in all probability, make it to the playing XI as three first-choice seamers. Varun Aaron and Ishwar Pandey will fight it out for the 4th seamer’s slot. Ishwar, albeit not express quick, looks good to me and will ask questions off the English batsmen with his consistent line and length. He had a good IPL season, and, if he hits similar lengths in England like he did for the Chennai Super Kings in the T20 league, he will pose serious problems for the inexperienced Poms' batting line-up.

Sticking to the 4-bowler theory will also make it cumbersome for the Indian seamers to pick a majority of the 20 wickets over 2 Test innings: a proposition that should worry the trio of Bhuvneshwar, an already struggling Ishant Sharma, and Mohammed Shami. Addition of one more seamer could go a long way in making sure that the quartet of seamers don’t break down prematurely and that the workload of completing 90 overs in a day is shared appropriately.

A batsman or Jadeja as the second spinning all-rounder could give a few extra runs with the bat – something that Ishwar Pandey or Varun Aaron might not – but it’s the kind of selection that could sabotage India’s ambitions of ending the ignominy of losing 11 of their last 15 overseas Test matches since 2011.

I seriously hope that the Indian captain learns from his past mistakes when India toured England, Australia, South Africa, and New Zealand, where the team looked short of a seamer in conditions that are tailor-made for them.

Tough call to take, but it’s imperative for Dhoni to pull the trigger.