Asia Cup 2022, India vs Hong Kong: Ravindra Jadeja, the buffer for rusty top-order

All-rounder's evolution as a batter in focus as India hope star players Rohit, Virat and Rahul strike form against Hong Kong todayDUBAI: As the Indian players deboarded the team bus for an optional practice session here at the ICC Academy on Tuesday evening, the photographers trained their lenses on Virat Kohli. As it turned out, this is the second practice session Kohli had decided to skip on either side of the Pakistan match last Sunday. As everyone looked around for Kohli, it turned out regular captain Rohit Sharma too was missing. So was head coach Rahul Dravid. India's top-three - Rohit, KL Rahul and Virat Kohli - have looked rusty and nowhere close to being at their fluent best, so Wednesday's match against minnows Hong Kong here at the Dubai International stadium could be just the right opportunity for them to get going.

When Dravid and Rohit assumed charge last November, they indicated that India would henceforth adopt a more aggressive batting approach in T20s. Ten months on, the top order looks the same and they are still struggling to play their carefree brand of cricket against top-quality attacks. Rahul, Ravindra Jadeja, Rishabh Pant and Deepak Hooda hit the nets on Tuesday. Jadeja, in particular, started hitting the ball right from the word go once he was done bowling casually for a few minutes.

It's apparent that Jadeja the batter has grown in significance in white-ball cricket, more so in T20Is, while Jadeja the bowler has taken a backseat. Jadeja has always fancied himself as an impact batter but the team management's trust in him to bat in the top order, like he did against Pakistan, has come at a time when the top three are in the middle of a rut. "I don't really plan. In T20s, sometimes you don't