'We want more from him' - Rohit Sharma suggests towards elevating Ravindra Jadeja in batting order

Star Indian all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja has been playing the finisher’s role with the bat in hand for a while now. Be it in yellow for his IPL franchise Chennai Super Kings or the national team, Jadeja’s ability to strike a clean ball is well documented.

However, in the last year or so, the 33-year-old has showcased significant growth in his overall skills with the bat. Jadeja no longer appears to be just someone who can come at the fag end of an innings to close off games. He can very well be seen as a batter who is in complete control of his game and has a lot more to his batting than just smashing boundaries.

The southpaw has shown great batting form playing Test cricket for India. However, the entire cricketing world took note when Jadeja took arguably the best bowler of the 2021 IPL season to the cleaners, scoring 37 runs off Harshal Patel’s over. In the recent past, various cricketing pundits and former cricketers have echoed Jadeja’s case to be given a higher number in India’s batting set-up.

I want him to bat up the order more: Rohit Sharma

However, the most important opinion on it came recently from India’s captain, Rohit Sharma. The skipper referring to Jadeja coming in to bat higher in the order in India’s last T20I against Sri Lanka suggested that the move is not a one-off one and the all-rounder’s promotion in the batting order could be seen on a more regular basis going forward.

“Very happy with Jadeja’s return. We want more from him, that is why we asked him to bat higher. You will see this happening more and more in the games that he plays for India. I want him to bat up the order more,” Rohit said in post match presentation.

Terming Jadeja as an improved batter, Rohit went on to state that the team management is clear about the role they want Jadeja to play in white-ball cricket.

“He is a vastly improved batter, so we will try and see if we can promote him going forward. We are very clear with what we want to achieve with him in white-ball cricket,” he added.

Interestingly, when Jadeja came out to bat at No. 4 for India in the T20I against Sri Lanka, it was only the second time in his 56-match T20I career that he batted at that position.