"Ravindra Jadeja is not your finisher....": Aakash Chopra ahead of T20 WC opener against Ireland

Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], June 5 : Ahead of India's ICC T20 World Cup campaign opener against Ireland, former opener Aakash Chopra said that one of the key concerns for India is all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja who is not very good at finishing games.
India, the inaugural T20 World Cup champions from 2007, will be kickstarting their campaign against Ireland in their group A clash today. The Men in Blue will be hoping to secure their first International Cricket Council (ICC) trophy since 2013's ICC Champions Trophy win.
Hosting JioCinema's sports show '#AAKASHVANI', Chopra said, "Ravindra Jadeja is not your finisher. We thrust him in that role, but he is not very good at it. We have not even accepted the fact that he is not a good finisher and that is a problem."
Jadeja could score only four runs in six balls during the warm-up match against Bangladesh, failing to hit some fours and sixes that could have taken India to a bigger score. In 14 games of the IPL 2024, Jadeja scored 267 runs at an average of 44.50 and a strike rate of 142.78, with one half-century. His best score was 57*. However, during the recently-concluded IPL, his hitting and consistency as a finisher in the final few overs of the game came under a scanner after some failures.
Jadeja's overall T20I stats are- 480 runs in 36 innings across 66 matches at an average of 22.85 and a strike rate of over 125. He is yet to hit a half-century in this format, with the best score of 46.
Aakash said that another concern for India is the form of another all-rounder Shivam Dube, who has been cold since the second half of the Indian Premier League (IPL), but the positive signs include the form of key players like Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant and Suryakumar Yadav.
"Another concern is our fielding, which I think could be problematic," he added.
Talking about the approach that the Men in Blue need to take against Ireland, Aakash said that the ball at New York's Nassau County Cricket Stadium has been acting up and India will have to take a few wickets in the powerplay and also bat well with the new ball.
"If either one of those things does not work out, your morale can break. If you want to beat Ireland, you must not lose more than one wicket in the first six overs. Second, take two wickets at the start of your bowling, and then control the game with your spin," he added.
Squads:
India Squad: Rohit Sharma(c), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant(w), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Mohammed Siraj, Yuzvendra Chahal, Sanju Samson, Shivam Dube
Ireland Squad: Paul Stirling(c), Andrew Balbirnie, Lorcan Tucker(w), Harry Tector, Curtis Campher, George Dockrell, Gareth Delany, Ross Adair, Barry McCarthy, Mark Adair, Joshua Little, Craig Young, Benjamin White, Neil Rock, Graham Hume.