ICC Cricket World Cup 2019: Was Kedar Jadhav Dropped for “Lack of Intent”?

Kedar Jadhav was dropped from the Indian squad in their match against Bangladesh at the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 on Tuesday. The Batting all-rounder was replaced by Dinesh Karthik in one of the two replacements made by India.

Kedar Jadhav was probably dropped due to an insipid performance so far at the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019. His latest failure came against England as he managed to score only 12 runs in 13 balls when the run rate was climbing high.

In their first defeat at the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019, the ‘Men in Blue’ required 71 in 5.1 overs when Kedar Jadhav came in to support MS Dhoni. However, the partnership could manage only 40 runs with both of them facing criticism for showing a lack of intent in the middle.

Kedar Jadhav and MS Dhoni’s approach baffled Sourav Ganguly and Nasser Hussain, who were present in the commentary box during the Indian innings as they felt that Jadhav and Dhoni should have switched gears in the last overs.

Earlier, Jadhav and Dhoni were condemned for their sluggish innings against Afghanistan as the team managed a below-par score against the underdogs.

Even Sachin Tendulkar came out to criticize MS Dhoni and Kedar Jadhav for their lack of intent against Afghanistan. The 34-year-old, playing his first ICC Cricket World Cup event scored only 80 runs in 5 innings with his bat.

“I felt slightly disappointed, it could have been much better. I was also not happy with the partnership between Kedar and Dhoni, it was very slow. We batted 34 overs of spin bowling and scored 119 runs. This was one area where we didn’t look comfortable at all. There was no positive intent,” said Sachin Tendulkar.

Dinesh Karthik, who replaced Kedar Jadhav could manage to score only 8 runs in 9 deliveries against Bangladesh on Tuesday as India out a score of a high score of 314 runs on board for Bangladesh to chase down in a must-win game for them. In the end, India finished the game off, winning by 28 runs and qualifying for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 semifinals.