Ravindra Jadeja dropped from ODIs

India announced their squads for the ODI and T20I tour of Sri Lanka, on Thursday evening (July 18). Among the notable omissions from the ODI squad was Ravindra Jadeja, which begs the question, have India called time on his white-ball international career?

There were several interesting selection calls made by the BCCI, not least the decision to appoint Suryakumar Yadav as the new T20I captain over Hardik Pandya, and Shubman Gill as the vice-captain in both formats. Another one, perhaps slipping under the radar a bit, was the one to leave all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja out of the ODI squad.

Jadeja's ODI involvement over the years

Following India's victorious T20 World Cup campaign,

. He was, therefore, still available for selection in the ODI and Test formats.

Jadeja played every match during India's run to the final in the 50-over World Cup last November. He had also taken part in all of India's last 15 ODIs, leading up to the tournament. The all-rounder was not picked for India's tour of South Africa in December, but many of the team's first-choice players were rested for that series.

Read more: How has Suryakumar Yadav, India's new T20I captain, fared as skipper in the past?

Despite his recent run of games, Jadeja has been far from a regular in India's ODI team since his debut in 2009. Seen initially as a T20 prospect before developing into arguably an all-time great Indian all-rounder in whites, the in-between format has been where a compromise of sorts on Jadeja's playing time has been reached.

Fitness may have counted against Jadeja

His form itself in ODIs has not been poor, or seen a massive decline. In 44 matches since the 2019 World Cup, he has scored 644 runs at an average of 40 and strike rate of 84, and taken 44 wickets at an average of 37, with an economy rate of 4.9. None of these numbers is significantly worse than his career record.

However, Jadeja has suffered a couple of injuries in recent times. His knee injury during the 2022 Asia Cup kept him out for nearly six months, while a pulled hamstring against England earlier this year meant he had to sit out four Test matches. He returned for the IPL and then the T20 World Cup. Now 35 years old, his workload may perhaps need more careful management.

India have home Test series against Bangladesh and New Zealand coming up in a few months, for which Jadeja will be crucial. Slightly more long-term, they would ideally like him to be at full fitness for Test match cricket, his best format.

Will India miss Jadeja, the ODI player?

With the Champions Trophy around the corner in February 2025, India opting not to pick Jadeja may well be a sign of things to come. The Men in Blue play only six ODIs before that tournament, and leaving Jadeja out of three of them sends a fairly clear message. The inclusion of both Axar Patel and Washington Sundar in this squad suggests they have space for a Jadeja-type player, but not the man himself.

It's a move that is unlikely to cause much fuss among Indian fans as well. Most are well aware of Jadeja's importance in red-ball cricket, and know that he is not much more than a solid, unspectacular, contributor in 50-overs cricket. It is a role that all-rounders like Axar and Sundar should be able to fill.

In the space of 18 days, Ravindra Jadeja's T20I career has come to an end on his own terms and his ODI career, in all likelihood, is heading the same way but perhaps not entirely of his own volition. Maybe it is a sign of the status ODIs occupy in the modern game, that almost nobody, not even the man himself, will be entirely cut up about the latter.

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