It's Very Heartening To See Chetan Sakariya Do So Well: Ajay Jadeja

One of the biggest finds of the first phase of the 2021 IPL was the left-arm seamer, Chetan Sakariya.

Making his IPL debut for the Rajasthan Royals, Chetan Sakariya showcased brilliant skills and temperament to steadily emerge as one of the go-to bowlers for Sanju Samson as the tournament progressed. In 7 games, the left-arm seamer claimed 7 wickets which included prized scalps of the likes of KL Rahul.

Sakariya, who has suffered a couple of heartbreaks in the form of the untimely demise of his brother (suicide) and father (Covid) in the past 7-8 months, has made giant strides in his professional career this year with the highest point being a maiden call-up to the national team for the limited-overs tour of Sri Lanka.

Former Indian cricketer Ajay Jadeja is impressed by the remarkable journey of Chetan Sakariya but he believes that a call-up to the Indian squad came too soon for the youngster.

“It’s very heartening to see him do so well. One, especially where he comes from and there’s a personal attachment. I saw him for the first time in the SPL. And he was a star there as well. With the Indian team, there is so much talent at the moment that in spite of him being very good, there is enough talent and who do you play him in place of? In case if you want to play a left-armer, you might think, but when you have got bowlers like Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Bhuvneshwar Kumar – bowlers who have been around for so long,” Ajay Jadeja said in response to a query from timesnownews.com.

‘I wish Chetan Sakariya luck’- Ajay Jadeja

Jadeja went on to cite the example of another left-arm seamer in Jaydev Unadkat, who was fast-tracked to the national team after a good season before being dumped after one poor performance.

Jadeja reckoned that the selectors must give an opportunity to a player only when they have complete belief in his ability and they should not judge him on the basis of one or two performances.

“Let’s not forget, we did something similar to Jaydev Unadkat. He had a good IPL season, then he played one game for India and went home. Give someone an opportunity when you believe in him. Even Tendulkar got out sometimes, even the great Aravinda de Silva with us got out, it doesn’t mean they are not good enough players. I think we go too much by performance on that one day and that’s happening because we have so much talent. I wish him luck, I hope I am wrong and he is in India’s squad for T20 World Cup. If I was there, I would wait for it,” the former Team India batter concluded.

The India-Sri Lanka white-ball rubbers will kickstart with the ODI series on July 13 and it will be interesting to see if Chetan Sakariya will get a chance to showcase his potential in the upcoming six limited-overs fixtures.

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