I can be finisher: Kedar Jadhav

Chennai: Kedar Jadhav is as multifaceted a cricketer as you could hope to feast your eyes on in this age of specialisation. Though it was his love for wielding the willow and making the fielders run ragged that helped him make heads turn and open the doors for an India debut, he has as much penchant for the other facets of the game.

Throw him the big gloves if your regular wicket-keeper is injured and he would accept the task with the pleasure of a child receiving a toffee. If there is a censorious captain who would want to test his skills with the ball before labeling him as a utility player, all he needs to do is just toss the sphere to him and he wouldn’t think twice about rolling up his sleeves to take the challenge head-on.

One underlying theme that made itself all too apparent to ignore is how the 31-year-old doesn’t baulk at being asked to embrace challenges. To the contrary, the tag of ‘finisher’ is something that sits merrily well with him as was clearly evident during the recent 3-2 one-day series win against New Zealand.

“I can be a finisher. Over the last two to three years, whenever I played for India ‘A’, the selectors wanted me to bat at number 5 or 6. I have become used to batting there for India as well and I think it suits my style as I have the freedom to play my shots,” says Jadhav, who is in the city to represent Maharashtra in the Ranji Trophy.

Considering that unlike some of his peers, Jadhav had to wait until 29 to get a feel of playing for India, there may have been a distinct possibility that he would have got disenchanted, but without batting an eyelid, Jadhav says he was always hopeful that his chance would come. “I never thought I wouldn’t play for India. I always had to strive to get something in life. But once I get hold of something, I wouldn’t let it out of my grasp,” adds Jadhav.

Jadhav calls the year 2013 the turning point in his career as he piled up in excess of 1,000 runs in domestic cricket. That, according to him, fast-tracked his entry into the Indian team. Drawing his attention to explaining how he worked on becoming the well-rounded player he is today, Jadhav credits it to how he enjoyed playing tennis-ball cricket as a professional in Pune. “I played too much of gully cricket when I was young. And when you do that, you are expected to do everything. Obviously, my primary focus was on batting. It was around 2010-11 during a club game that I had an exposure to ‘keeping for the first time. I didn’t fare too badly as I took three catches.”