Kedar Jadhav, India's New Batting Sensation!

- Bhavesh Bhimani

Indian cricket never fails to produce batting stars. Throughout its history, one thing has remained constant: the birth of batting sensations. While Virat Kohli has been leading India’s batting charts in the past few months, a new and exciting face has suddenly appeared on the horizon. A face which no one expected to emerge.

Kedar Kadhav’s stunning match-winning 76-ball 120 which helped India chase down a mammoth target of 351 in the 1st ODI against England has brought him right into the limelight. The Pune-born batsman stole the show in the day-night game in front of his home crowd. In fact, such was his dominance that he even overshadowed captain Virat Kohli’s brilliant 105-ball 122.

It is not often you see Virat Kohli playing second-fiddle to someone, but that is exactly what transpired in the match as Jadhav, who came in when India were reeling at 63-4, took the game away from the visitors with his outstanding counter-attack. Jadhav romped to his 50 off just 29 balls and before England captain Eoin Morgan could comprehend what was happening, he had taken the game away from them.

What was notable about this superlative effort was that despite battling cramps, Jadhav kept going and it was his effort that knocked the stuffing out of England. With his continuous and nonchalant hitting, Jadhav made sure that the strike-rate was under control and even when he departed after hitting 12 fours and four sixes, he had ensured that there could only be one winner in the game.

“It is a great feeling that I could win a game for my country. That too at my home ground. My mom, dad, my wife, my daughter are here. I could play this long because the captain Kohli has shown us how to chase big totals. I have already missed many chances with the batting. I have also missed chances to bat with Virat and watch him closely,” Jadhav said after the game.