Kolkata: India all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja is going through a tough time and his fielding, which is the main strength of the left-hander, also went through a hard time during Chennai Super Kings’ (CSK) IPL-XI game against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), Thursday.
Jadeja is not in his prime form in the ongoing IPL season as he has scored only 59 runs from the nine outings and has only stuck thrice with the ball. However, he has managed to overshadow his shortcomings with both bat and ball with some magnificent fielding.
But Thursday was not Jadeja’s day on the field as he dropped consecutive catches of Sunil Narine at the Eden Gardens. The incident happened in the second over of the KKR innings when Narine hit a KM Asif back of a length delivery straight to Jadeja, who was at mid-off, but the all-rounder not only dropped the catch in the first attempt but also failed to collect the ball in the second attempt as well.
Jadeja’s nightmare did not end there and continued to haunt him as Asif followed with a similar delivery and Narine played the same shot only for Jadeja to drop the KKR opener for the second time as CSK captain MS Dhoni stood in disbelief behind the stumps.
However, his teammates Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu and Sam Billings came up to Jadeja and pat him on the back to boost his morale after the end of the over.
The drop catches also led to Jadeja’s criticism as CSK fans questioned the all-rounder’s place in the playing XI.
“Dear @msdhoni & @SPFleming7, will you please let us know the role of Jadeja? Why he is in CSK’s playing XI? What is his role actually? A batsman or bowler? Be it whatever, he is doing terrible things. Please DROP him,” tweeted a fan.
“Jadeja can’t bat. Jadeja doesn’t get to bowl. Jadeja still plays 8 games in a row. Find someone who loves you the way Dhoni loves Jadeja,” a tweet reads from another fan.
Although Jadeja did make amends of his mistakes as he removed Narine for 32 in the seventh over to the game to give himself a reprieve. It was not enough though as CSK lost the match by six wickets.
