With defending champions Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians kick starting the Indian Premier League Season V at MA Chidambaram Stadium on Wednesday, all eyes will be on Ravidra Jadeja who was bought by the Chennai franchisee for an astonishing amount (officially two million dollar).
A guy who was nowhere in the scene before the advent of IPL and is a totally a product of the league has been mentored by the “Spin Wizard” Shane Warne. Jadeja became an integral part of Rajasthan Royals that went on the win inaugural edition of the cash rich Indian Premier League. He was nicknamed the “Rockstar” by Warne as he could sense a bright future in him. Staying on Royals’ board for two seasons, he was suspended from the third due to a contractual dispute before joining the Kochi Tuskers in IPL-4.
With Kochi getting banned from IPL, all the players were due for auction and Jadeja emerged out to everybody’s bone of contention. Going at a base price of $100,000, he became the hottest property in the auction and finally was brought by Chennai Super Kings at $ 2 million after a tie breaker with Deccan Chargers. That was all they could spend and were done for the season. But the N. Srinivasan led Chennai side do not seem to be perplexed with that fact and rather was more than content to pay the amount for the all-rounder.
What made Chennai pay such a whooping amount for him? Guess that is the beauty of this side. It takes well contemplated risks which have made them the most successful team in the IPL history.
Chennai have made stars out of local cricketers, Ashwin being one of the prime examples. And talking about Jadeja, he is already an established star of Indian one-day side.
Jadeja did prove to be handy for a while in ODIs because of his innate all-round talent and hunger to do well at the biggest stage. His ODI record till date looks good with decent all-round averages in both bowling and batting and his prowess in fielding is something that never needed testimonials.
Now after being bought for an unprecedented price, a lot would be expected out of him and everyone would be looking forward to watch him in action and see if he could deliver the goods for his new team and justify his price.
For Chennai the opening match is very crucial because they start their title defence against one of the best and dreaded teams of IPL and Jadeja needs to perform par excellence to prove his worth and make it clear to the world he indeed has it in him to be a million dollar boy.
By Samikshan Dutta Choudhury
Indian Sports News
