Picture Credit: BCCI/IPL
Former India cricketer Ajay Jadeja was not a happy man at all after Kolkata Knight Riders decided to look beyond Venkatesh Iyer for a place in their XI. Notably, the Men in Purple have not been able to arrive at a combination that is working well for them and has hence chopped and changed quite a few players, taking their players used tally to 20 in 10 matches - the most by any team in IPL 2022.
During Kolkata's last game against Rajasthan Royals when the Shreyas Iyer-led side opted to drop Venkatesh Iyer from their side, Jadeja wasn't pleased and expressed the same with all honesty during an interaction on Cricbuzz. He is of the opinion that India probable players or those who are playing for India should not be dropped on the basis of a few under-par performances.
"It's like while trying to save your life, you are ready to (sacrifice) Indian cricket because you come from different nations here for two months you run the team the way you want and then leave according to the contract," Jadeja said on the show.
"There will always be a debate regarding selection. But if you start dropping players of the Indian team after just a handful of matches then you will set a very bad precedent for Indian cricket," he added.
Having said that, Iyer was tried at the top of the order and even in the middle before being axed in the XI. In 9 games, the left-handed batter accumulated 132 runs at an average of 16. The medium-quick bowler couldn't contribute much with the ball either and has bowled 3 overs so far in the tournament without taking any wicket.
Other than Venkatesh, the 51-year-old veteran of 196 ODIs, said that even the likes of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli who are having a poor season must be backed.
"If you talk about performance then Virat Kohli didn't have much till the last game, Rohit Sharma hasn't performed much, a lot of players haven't performed well. It's almost impossible that players would perform in every match. I'm talking about Indian cricket's perspective. It's not that KKR's team doesn't have promising young talent," he said.
