communi.icu

The Indian team is unraveling, one player at a time, just in time for the much anticipated India vs. Australia series. Not sure as to whether this is a premonition of disaster that our performance will bring or if it is nature’s way of weeding out the unnecessary and molding the Indian cricket team into a mean fighting machine. Be assured that ninety nine percentage of the Indian population are leaning towards the more pessimistic take on the situation and worrying ourselves sick ahead of the exciting series. What else are we to do when four of our best players have been rendered unfit to play in the game due to unfortunate injuries?

It all started with fast paced bowler- Umesh Yadav spraining his back during the Test series against England held in Ahmadabad in November 2012. He was forced to sit out for the second and third tests to recuperate and be back in time for the fourth test. But h rehabilitation period did not end there. According to the latest news, Yadav has not made it to the team that will be battling Australia in the test series. It is such a shame that the speedster can’t participate as a lot was riding on him.

The next one to be relegated from the match due to an injury was another fast paced bowler- Zaheer Khan. He was physically hurt during the Ranji Trophy match against Gujarat in December 2012 and had avoided playing in the rest of tournament. He was supposed to be back by January 21, but the healing process is taking some time and it will be a while before he starts bowling again. Hopefully he might available to play for the second half of the Australia test series.

Another bowler- Aaron, recently fell prey to whatever curse that has been plaguing the bowlers. Besides a back sprain, he has also been victim to a nasty knee injury that will keep him out of the Australian series. Irfan Pathan suffered a knee injury which kept him at bay for a month while there isn’t much information available on the damage that Munaf Patel’s incurred. The latest casualty of cricket activities is Ishant Sharma.

Ishant Sharma’s profile has always been an injury ridden one. Sharma who is the player of the Indian cricket team underwent treatment of his injured left ankle. Though initially it was stated that he might have to give the Aussie test series a miss, with timely treatment and a lot of persuasion, he is back on track and playing in the test series.

Ravindra Jadeja has been the butt of a lot of jokes, a LOT. This balderdash continues in spite of his awesome performance at the recent matches for the Indian Cricket team. Following are a few examples (admittedly funny one) sourced from another website, pertaining to mockery of Jadeja.

“When Sir Ravindra Jadeja first travelled to Sri Lanka to play in yet another of those meaningless ODI series, Shahid Afridi was yet to come out of his 2nd retirement, Tiger Woods was yet to be accused of infidelity, Balotelli had never earned a red card & Kristen Stewart was still a virgin.

When Jadeja embarked on a glorious career taming Kulasekara & co., Poonam Pandey was a name unheard of; Suresh Raina’s nephew was in his nappies; baby Bachchan was still a stray sperm swimming in AB’s pelvic cavity & SRK was yet to promote Ra.One.

It seems while Time was having his toll on every individual on the face of this planet, he excused one man. Time stands frozen in front of Jadeja. We’ve had champions, we’ve had legends, but we’ve never had a Jadeja & we never will.” – Time magazine.

I think the last one pretty much sums it up. Yes, the above is a fabricated bit to invoke a sense of comedy into harsh subtext of criticism thrown his way but nevertheless one has to wonder, “Is he truly that out of shape and devoid of good form?” Sure Ravindra Jadeja profile has ranked up some pretty bad statistics and at one painfully sad point his bowling has been termed the worst in history.

He has been maligned, made fun of and painted in a very unflattering light, all because of a few (though conspicuous) hits and misses. Who among us haven’t had a bad day? Which cricket player in history has had a successive run in every single match of his life? No one! Everyone is due their shortfalls and slip ups, sooner or later. Jadeja’s bad bowling attacks have often eclipsed his excellent batting prowess. Let us not forget that he managed an amazing feat of scoring his not first, but third triple century, when he was just twenty three. No other Indian has recorded such an astounding batsman ship and only seven other players in the cricket history are credited with three triple centuries. The constant pressure to live up to the legacy left by their erstwhile successful predecessors is too much of a burden on younger and contemporary players like Ravindra Jadeja. It will serve well if the Indian cricket fans are more accommodating and forgiving with respect to the players.