Krunal Already Offers Us The Skill-Set That Jadeja Offers: MSK Prasad

Ravindra Jadeja was one of the exclusions from the Indian T20I squad which was announced yesterday and it raised quite a few eyebrows.

The Saurashtra left-hander has been in decent form with both bat and ball in all formats of the game and many experts thought he might have a role to play for India in the WT20 next year.

But, according to the Indian chief selector MSK Prasad, India already have a player in the form of Krunal Pandya who “offers the same skill-set” as Jadeja and the selectors didn’t see any point in having two similar kind of players in the squad.

Krunal, just like Jadeja, is a left-handed lower order batsman and bowls left-arm orthodox spin. Krunal, however, doesn’t turn the ball as much as Jadeja. He likes to slide the ball in with the angle.

Krunal is better as compared to Jadeja in terms of his pace variation. Jadeja, more or less, bowls at the same pace irrespective of the pitch and the situation of the game.

But, Krunal is really smart in reading the batsmen and changing his pace accordingly which is why his economy rate in the IPL in the last few seasons has been much lower than that of Jadeja.

Batting wise, there is not much difference between Krunal and Jadeja. Krunal’s power game against pace is probably what makes him a slightly better prospect to have at no. 7.

India have brought Yuzvendra Chahal back into the squad to replace Jadeja and that makes sense as the wrist spinners are always needed in the middle overs in T20 cricket to break the game.

India have two wrist spinners in the squad for the Bangladesh T20Is. While Chahal will be the first choice, Rahul Chahar is the back-up. The two might play together as well.