India vs New Zealand 2019: I Consider Kedar Jadhav as the Proper Spinner - Rohit Sharma

India’s stand-in captain on the New Zealand tour, Rohit Sharma doesn’t think Kedar Jadhav is a part-timer anymore; instead, he prefers to call him a proper spinner. Looking down at Kedar’s numbers, Rohit’s statement could look naive. But it doesn’t rule out his contribution during the middle overs in New Zealand ODIs. Though Kedar had picked only three wickets in five matches, he conceded 103 runs off 114 total balls he bowled.

We wanted to try every combination – Rohit

In the fifth and final ODI in Wellington, India played Yuzvendra Chahal and rested Kuldeep Yadav. Since the Men in Blue had won the series already, they could take the leverage of keeping out key players. Rohit Sharma, during the press conference, said the same, adding had the series been on the line the team could have played both the regular spinners.

However, Kedar played the role of a second spinner in the match; impressing with his bowling, he picked up the captain, Kane Williamson. Moreover, he gave away only 34 runs in seven overs.

“We want to try all the combinations, whatever is available with us,” Rohit said. “We wanted to try the four seaming options and one spinner, with Kedar being the part-time option there.”

“See, if the series was on the line, we would have played with two spinners, probably three seamers, with Kedar being there, but yes, now that we’ve won the series, after the third game, we wanted to try out various combinations which will help us going forward. So that was the idea.”

Kedar gives us the balance of being the second spinner – Rohit

Sharma noted the team has to take every combination in consideration heading into the 2019 World Cup. Since each team will be playing nine matches at least unless they advance to the semis and finals; anything can happen – players could be out of form, some injury etc. Thus to use Kedar as the proper spinner seems to be the part of the plan.

“In the World Cup, you’re going to play nine games. Semi-final, final, that’s 11 games. Anything can happen to anyone – injuries, out of form. Keeping those things in mind we wanted to try out every combination that we can have as a team. We tried two spinners, we tried four seamers and one spinner, and then Kedar always gives us the balance of being the second spinner.”

I consider him as a proper spinner, says the skipper

On Sunday, India played two seamers, one spinner and three all-rounders. Though they did nothing wrong to get criticised, Rohit thinks having Kedar in the lineup gives the team the balance of having an extra spinner.

Furthermore, Rohit Sharma said he considers Jadhav as the proper spinner; why, because he bowls at least six overs in every game and gives them a crucial breakthrough too. As mentioned above, a wicket of Kane Williamson more or less sunk the BlackCaps ship in the last ODI.

“I consider him as a proper spinner because every game, you see, he bowls four-five overs, six overs, seven overs maybe, and gets a wicket as well, at the crucial time. Even today you saw, the wicket of Kane Williamson was a crucial point when he got that wicket because they were going pretty well at that point, things were looking very easy from a New Zealand perspective.

“He came and broke that partnership and we’ve seen that many a time, he’s done that. He gives that balance also if we want to play four seamers and one spinner, and Kedar being sort of your second lead spinner.” he said.

Meanwhile, India will now face New Zealand in the three-match T20Is, starting February 6th (Wednesday) in Wellington.