In 2019, Sanjay Manjrekar perhaps the biggest mistake as a critic by referring to Ravindra Jadeja as a ‘bits and pieces’ player. The southpaw didn’t take that remark well, and made it a point to prove the former Indian cricketer wrong. Well, he succeeded in doing so, not just in one format, but in all three. But that was until 2022 in T20Is, after which he retired from the format after the World Cup win in 2024, and till 2023 in ODIs, when he was perhaps at his prime.
Jadeja has been undoubtedly India’s best all-rounders in Tests, and perhaps the most reliable one after the departure of Ravichandran Ashwin in December 2024. However, his exploits over the last two years in white-ball formats has been meagre. In fact, the clock is very much ticking on his ODI career as well, given both his lack of game time and performances with both bat and ball in the 50-over format.
While there is no question on T20Is, obviously since he has retired from the format, the onus falls on ODIs when it comes to white-ball cricket. The likes of Axar Patel and Washington Sundar have stepped up to pose themselves as the southpaw’s replacements in the 50-over format and this leaves Jaddu with very less time to prove his worth and prolong his ODI career.
Jadeja’s decline in ODIs explained
In the World Cup year in 2023, where India suffered a heartbreaking loss in the final to Australia, Jadeja featured in 26 games where he amassed 309 runs at an average of 30.90 while he managed to bag 31 wickets. Prior to that, from the the end of 2019 World Cup onwards, he has scored 259 runs from 12 games while he picked 8 wickets. His decline began from then onwards, as he played has played a combined of 11 ODIs in 2025 and 2026 after not featuring in a single 50-over format game in 2024, and has scored 112 runs and has taken 12 wickets in that period.
Year | Matches | Runs | Wkts |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 15 | 206 | 12 |
| 2020 | 9 | 223 | 7 |
| 2022 | 3 | 36 | 1 |
| 2023 | 26 | 309 | 31 |
| 2025 | 10 | 106 | 12 |
| 2026 | 1 | 4 | 0 |
Even though Jadeja has 2866 runs and 232 wickets from 208 ODIs, the dip in his 50-over format over the last two years in hard to ignore. And this is where, one can easily point out that the southpaw is at the fag end of his career and that his possible replacements have done well enough in the past to cement a place in the side.
The Axar Patel angle
Axar, who made his ODI debut way back in 2014, has grown leaps and bounds in the format, especially over the last year. His impressive performances on being promoted up the order in T20Is has not only earned him the trust of the coach and the captain but also that of the selectors. Patel is simply not a part of the ongoing IND vs NZ ODI series because he is a part of the T20 World Cup squad and hence, India wouldn’t want to risk overworking him.
He is bound to return to the setup at the time of the England series in June, which means Jadeja has very little time – literally two games – to prove his worth. Axar’s exploits in ODIs include 290 runs and 11 wickets from 11 ODIs in 2025 alone, which also happens to be his best season in the 50-over format as well.
Washington Sundar’s absence a boon in disguise for Jadeja
While it is very clear that Jadeja has just a couple of ODIs to prove himself which will determine his place in the 50-over format side in the future, he clearly has received a boon in disguise in the form of Sundar’s injury. The Tamil Nadu all-rounder, who is now being considered as a mainstay in India’s ODI setup, suffered a rib injury during the IND vs NZ 1st ODI which saw him being ruled out of the remainder of the series.
Being the only proper spin all-rounder in the squad in Washi’s absence, Jadeja now has a golden chance and perhaps the last two only to impress the selectors with performances with both ball and bat to prolong his ODI career. Besides, it is pertinent to point out that the southpaw faces competition in the form of ample alternatives such as Axar, Sundar, Parag and even Badoni who could not only knock him out of the race for ODI World Cup in 2027 but also put a full stop to his 50-over format career, more so not too late than labeling it prematurely.
Failure to fare well at number 5, with both CSK and India
The experiment to allow Jadeja to bat at number 5 or 6 has not yielded good results for either Team India or his former IPL franchise CSK. In 3 and 10 ODIs at number 5 and 6, he has only managed to score 30 and 180 runs respectively while he has been at his best while batting at 7 – scoring 2056 runs from 100 ODIs.
Jadeja’s performance in the IND vs NZ 1st ODI was severely criticised after he scored just 4 off 5 deliveries before he departed due to an unnecessary shot, especially when India needed him the most. With India having no dearth of batters in their squad, Jadeja would want to prove his naysayers wrong with a better performance with the bat in the 2nd ODI if he gets a chance, as it is already pointed out before that he is running out of time.
Stats might suggest that Jadeja fared quite well for CSK while batting in the middle-order. After all, he amassed 301 runs and scored 2 half-centuries a a strike rate of little over 135 in IPL 2025. However, his strike rate while facing the initial deliveries was quite poor and his technique was simply not suited for modern cricket. Once again, this proves that Jadeja is outdated in terms of requirements of white-ball formats, as far as his recent stats suggest.
Cricket
Clock ticking for Ravindra Jadeja, the bits and pieces player, for ODI World Cup 2027
