The Disgraced Hero. Review on Ajay Jadeja

There are some things that'll make an everlasting impression on our humpy-bumpy mind. There are some views that can never be changed, whatever may be the amount of convincing, somethings can simply not be changed. Such is my opinion on one such Indian player, who is disgraced now as such but once upon a time was solely responsible for holding up the Indian innings even when the master, Sachin failed on big occassions. Well, this person has been the captain of the Indian team before. Think. Guess. You think you are right? Think again. I am not talking about the much talked Azharuddin. I am talking about someone who really is more special to me than any other cricketer. I am writing about Ajay Jadeja. Lets not waste any time as we have a flashback.

Way back in the 1992 world cup, when India could win only 2 of its league matches and came close to winning the match against Australia, I remember an awesome catch being taken by a youngster to dismiss Allan Border. He was none other than, Ajay Jadeja, who suddenly set a high standard in the field, something the Indian Cricket team was always reluctant to accept. That was the first sight of Jadeja and I felt he certainly was going to make it big in the Indian team. He did exactly that. Initially selected as an opener, Jadeja was wondering for form as he never really clicked as an opener. But yet, there was Sachin to shore up the batting and Jadeja's job remained to give him the beloved stand. But in late 94, if I am right, the Singer Cup in Srilanka saw the re-entry of Sidhu to the Indian team. And that was when Jadeja was pushed to the middle order, where I feel, he really felt nice enough. That was it. The true talent of Ajay came to fore as he played some wonderful knocks in the middle order.

One innings which I really enjoyed whole heartedly was his 87 against Pakistan in Bangalore in the 96 world cup. What an innings!! He simply ruined the figures of Aquib Javed and Waqar Younis. Be is a slog or a shot, he did it with absolute grace and he was awesome. That certainly should rank as one of the sparkling one-day innings by an Indian. But I am really not going to bore anybody with statistics. Let me just go into how good a cricketer, Jadeja was.

As a Batsman: If you got to play Jadeja in a side you got to play him in the middle order. That was proved when he was picked in the Asia XI for the match against the World XI in Dhaka as a middle order batsman. As a batsman, Jadeja was personified by sound technique, great eye-hand co-ordination, powerful strokeplay, ability to rotate strike and the ever cool temperment of his in the tightest of situations. I really loved his lofted straight drive which he would do it almost regularly and that too, with one hand at times. His ability to run cheeky singles and his remarkable talent to rotate the strike made him stand apart. This was one reason why he was in the middle order as a mainstay. Remember him playing with Robin Singh? Wow. . . they made a deadly combination when it came to running between the wickets. Being one of the fastest runners in the team, his ability to steal the 2 out of 1 and the 3 out of 2 made him a superb middle order player.

As a Bowler: Jadeja was no bunny with the ball. He, his whole carrier has bowled just under 100 overs but he is the only Indian bowler to take 3 wickets in an over, twice. He had that unique ability to pick wickets in crunch situations when you feel everybody is going to be belted. I often used to see figures like 3/3, 2/4 and 1-0-3-2 and that goes to show that he was really lucky in getting wickets.

As a Fielder: If you think that the fielding of the Indian cricketers have improved only off late then you might have to re-think over the issue because, Jadeja was a tremendous fielder. Diving around to save singles and taking some wonderful catches, Jadeja kept the point position almost for himself. This also reflected in the team's performance as he never let the bowlers down. Such was his tenacity.

As a Captain: Well, Jadeja had his share of captaincy as he led the team rather successfully to Sharjah and Nairobi. Though he could'nt win a series, he certainly motivated the team as much as he could as he led from the front by example. I still remember the game in Nairobi, when India restricted South Africa to just 117 in the whole of 50 overs. It was amazing to see Jadeja, always speaking to the bowlers and motivating them to give their best.

At his Best: Jadeja struck gold in Australia's tour of India 1998. In the 5 one-day matches he played, he scored two unbeaten tons and ended with a record breaking average of 450 odd runs. Getting that against Australia was all the more special. Never really good in the longer version of the game, Jadeja was surely an immensely capable one-day batsman. That showed in his performance.

The Doomsday: Well, afterall the elephant had a fall. In 2000, when Hansie Cronje was stumped by the match-fixing controversy, Jadeja was also accused of having involved himself in such stupid and shameful things. I am not sure as to how true this was, but that was it for Jadeja. Whatever he did, how much ever he raised his voice, this Board of ours would not succumb to all of them. So he was banned from playing cricket for 5 years and well, that was the end of a solid middle order batsman.

Looking back, I really do feel sorry for him as I really don't think or can't imagine Jadeja being so mean. Because, as far as I am concerned, he played for the team and never did he fulfill selfish needs as is the case in so many of his innings. In my opinion, Jadeja was a gem of a cricketer. He surely was an asset to the Indian team and well, if he really did commit a mistake, well, everybody does. Though I am being biased to this guy, I feel nothing can deny the fact that he was a versatile player. When people abuse him for cheating the country it really hurts me because he has played many a wonderful innings in his career without any sort of selfishness and well, if he really has done something then it was right to have him punished.But it is sad that his career ended so quickly and we lost a formidable middle order batsman. But I am happy that there are youngsters like Kaif and Yuvraj, who really have come of age in shoring the middle order up. Jadeja, well I can only feel sorry for you man!! So if you ask me as to who in your book is one of the best Indian one-day middle order batsman, I would certainly have Ajay Jadeja and would certainly recommend him to any true cricket fan.