Jadeja-vu: CSK's same old phenomenon

Ravindra Jadeja is having a weird season.

A new recruit has bowled more than he has - which considering he plays for Chennai Super Kings - is saying something. He hasn't been needed to complete his full quota of overs in three out of eight games - two of those at Chepauk.

On the flip side, after being with CSK since 2012, last week was the first time he managed to face more than 35 balls in an innings. This is a bit of an inversion of the player he used to be. Back in the old days, people used to say Jadeja was a fielder first, bowler next and batter last.

And it is so tempting to think his bowling informs his batting. Jadeja with the ball is forever urgent. He never gives the batter any time to settle and he beats them because of it. Is that why whenever he goes in to bat, he always gives himself a few deliveries to get the lay of the land first? Nearly 90% of his innings for CSK have been at No. 5 or lower and yet he tends to start slow. This season, for example, his strike rate in the first 10 balls is 120.75. Even his greatest performance for the franchise, in last year's epic final, started with a couple of entirely non-violent drives down the ground for singles.

"One of his strengths," CSK batting coach Michael Hussey said of Jadeja on Saturday, "is being able to work the balls into the gaps, use his pace running between the wickets and picking the right times and the right bowlers to attack."

Jadeja isn't, by any definition, a power-hitter. He is a pace-hitter. That is really why he gets pushed down the order. There's a significantly higher chance of facing fast bowling when you walk in towards the end of the innings. In 2021, he maximised this strength to such an extent that he was not that far behind AB de Villiers' strike rate (229 vs 195) in the death overs.

It is a bit ironic that at the exact time he has won a place in CSK folklore - even gaining a title that the fans only bestow upon their favourites - Jadeja is facing a crisis on not one but two fronts. First, the pitches in Chennai aren't offering their usual help to the spinners. He has come away wicketless in three of the four innings he's bowled at Chepauk. And second, his touch is a little off. Last season, Jadeja faced only 21 dots in the first 10 balls of his innings. This season, even though its only halfway through, that count is already up at 16.

"He's playing, sometimes now, a slightly different role," Hussey said, "because in the last few years he's come in very late, batting with MS [Dhoni] towards the back end. And this year we've asked him a few times to come in at the No. 4 position. It's a very different role and sometimes according to the situation, you need to just be free and go quite quickly. But other times you've lost a couple of wickets in the powerplay, you need to take a little bit of time to build the next partnership.

"I think he's doing a pretty good job actually, of reading the situation and playing accordingly. I know we're seeing some games where teams are just teeing off, but if the conditions, or the match situation doesn't dictate that, then you've got to play a different way. I think he's doing a really good job and he's adapting to the different situations of the game."

Jadeja isn't exactly bombing in either discipline - he has a three-for, with an overall economy rate of 7.85, and a 35-ball fifty against one of the top four teams. And his spirits are pretty high. In the match against Kolkata Knight Riders, he helped wind the crowd up by putting on his gear and pretending to walk out to bat only to turn right around and take his seat so that MS Dhoni could take centre stage. It's just that it almost feels like he's having to learn the whole game again. What can he do when Chepauk doesn't grip and turn? How will he deal with promotions up the order, which will expose him to situations where he won't have pace on the ball to exploit?

Jadeja has gone through his entire career with questions like those flung at him and more often than not he comes up with an answer that doesn't just shut people up, it wins them over. "Need new haters," he tweeted once. "The old ones are starting to like me."