Suresh Raina's return to the side made difficult by Kedar Jadhav

Before the start of the ODI series between India and New Zealand, a lot of focus was on the return of Suresh Raina in the squad after almost a year. There were speculations that the left-hander will revive the second half of his career by taking up the finisher’s role in the team.

But such was his misfortune that a viral fever kept him out of the playing XI for the whole series. To make the case worse for him, Kedar Jadhav pounced on the opportunity to strengthen his contention for a prominent membership in the team.

The man from Maharashtra had a wonderful time in the series, especially with the ball. He took 6 wickets in 18 overs over the course of the 4 innings that he bowled in. He was brought in as an experiment by MS Dhoni in the first match and he responded with two quick wickets.

In the 3 matches that followed, he kept picking up wickets whenever he was introduced into the attack. To go with the wickets, he had a tremendous economy rate of 4.05. Before the series, he hardly had any wickets to show in his first-class record but he came up as a surprise package.

But as per Surendra Bhave, the former coach of Maharashtra who has been associated with Jadhav since the days of under-19, Jadhav’s heroics with the ball did not come up as a surprise to him and it was something that he had already witnessed.

He was quoted as saying, ”Kedar has always been a multi-skilled player. To be a good batsman, you need ball sense, but Kedar has taken that skill into his bowling as well. His ball sense and subtle speed changes have worked in his favor.”

A few months back, Suresh Raina used to be the trusted man for Dhoni to do the duties of the 5th or the 6th bowler. He used to do in on a consistent basis, something Kedar did in the series against New Zealand. He also played a couple of useful innings with the bat and might now pose a serious threat to the hopes of Raina’s comeback in the side.

“Kedar’s performance will make it tough for Raina to return. But it depends on how many players are fit for selection and whether there are slots for these new guys, or will the big guns, who were rested, be automatically selected. Ask for a contribution and Kedar has delivered. He has done his bit,” the former National Selector added.