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And then there are others that, despite their stellar contributions to the cause, often slip under the radar, the adulation that comes their way not commensurate with their exploits on the park. Maybe it’s because they don’t talk a good talk, maybe because they undersell themselves, or maybe because they aren’t considered ‘exciting’ enough.
Driving force
Within the team environs, such individuals are held in very high esteem because their colleagues know what they bring to the table. At the end of the day, that’s what driven, proud, committed players aspire for – the respect of their peers and their opponents, not so much what the hype-driven social media warriors think and propagate.
There are no prizes for guessing which category Ravindra Jadeja falls under. Nearly 17 years in international cricket? Wow, really? Is that how long he has been around?
Guess what. Really, yes, that’s how long he has been around.
Jadeja earned his maiden India cap in February 2009, in a One-Day International against Sri Lanka in Colombo. India had already taken a winning 4-0 lead when Jadeja was drafted into the XI for the deadest of rubbers. The left-arm spinner didn’t have a great time with the ball, none for 40 from six overs, but provided a glimpse of the potential that nestled in his still evolving frame with an unbeaten 60. Coming in at No. 8 with the Indian chase of 321 in tatters at 138 for six, he batted with authority and composure before running out of partners as India went down by 68 runs. He was only 20, the world, it seemed, was his oyster.
Ravindra Jadeja failed to keep the batters in check in the ODI series against New Zealand. | Photo Credit: AFP
All these years later, Jadeja can reflect on what has been a wonderful career with justifiable pride. He isn’t done yet – he is only retired internationally from the T20 game – but the plain-speaking, fun-loving yet private Jadeja will be the first to admit that he is much closer to the end of his career than its beginning. He isn’t running on fumes, not by a long way, but Father Time doesn’t stop for anyone and Jadeja is no spring chicken, having rung in his 37th birthday a month back.
Wait. Jadeja is 37, really? Yes, he is, really.
More visible
The raging debates in Indian cricket in the last eight months, since first Rohit Sharma and then Kohli announced their retirement from the five-day game, have revolved around these two generational batters and what the future holds for them. Jadeja has, typically, not even been in the fringes of these discussions, largely because not only is he still a Test cricketer too, but he is a very, very good one at that. Because Rohit and Kohli are only one-format internationals, and because the former is 38 and the latter 37, conversations have tended to focus on whether they will be in the mix for the next 50-over World Cup, in southern Africa some 22 months away. If Jadeja has been excepted from these conversations, it’s because he is more ‘visible’, both physically and performance-wise, on a more sustained basis.
Jadeja is one of those rare gems that Indian cricket has been lucky to be blessed with over the years. Even cold statistics are enough to present the picture of a genuine all-rounder – 4,095 runs (highest 175 not out) with six hundreds and an average of 38.27 in 89 Tests to go with 348 wickets (best seven for 42) at an average of 25.11, bolstered by 15 five-wicket hauls. A tally of 2,905 runs at 32.27 and a strike-rate of 85.54 alongside 232 wickets, average 36.54, economy 4.88 runs per over. In a now inactive T20I career, Jadeja finished with 515 runs (average 21.45, strike-rate 127.16) and 54 wickets (economy 7.13) in 74 outings.
Born in unfashionable Navagam-Khed in Saurashtra, whose emergence as a domestic powerhouse has been triggered by the brilliance of Jadeja and the now-retired Cheteshwar Pujara and sustained by the industry and commitment of Jaydev Unadkat and Sheldon Jackson, among others, Jadeja boasts upwards of 7,500 runs and 634 wickets at the highest level. This is nothing short of phenomenal, but Jadeja has never been considered a phenom. If that has bothered him, he has done an awfully wonderful job of concealing it superbly.
Jadeja the person is much like Jadeja the cricketer. Or is it the other way round? Simple, understated and with a no-fuss attitude, he keeps talking himself down when those with far less impressive credentials clamber on to the rooftops and beat their chests till the world is forced to take notice. How understated, you ask? During the home Test season in October-November, his opinion was sought on what he thought was the greater requirement of him – as a batter or as a bowler. “Easy,” he replied. “When the pitch is good for batting, I become a batter. And when it is good for bowling, I am a bowler.” How does one argue with this logic, stunningly obvious for its simplicity, for the innate understanding of strengths and awareness of weaknesses that have made him one of the most valuable cricketers in today’s ecosystem.
Ravindra Jadeja was in fine form with the bat in last year’s England tour. | Photo Credit: Getty Images
Jadeja’s evolution as a Test batter over the last half-decade has been exceptionally upwardly mobile. From the time he started to look at himself as a genuine batter rather than just a lower-order slogger – a shift in mindset that coincided with greater responsibility as he was moved up the order – he has been one of India’s most consistent run-makers, at home as well as overseas. In England last summer, he was one of three batters, alongside skipper Shubman Gill and K.L. Rahul, to finish with more than 500 runs. Five half-centuries, four of them on the bounce, and an unbeaten, match-saving 107 (in Manchester) flowed beautifully in 10 innings, more than making up for a middling effort with the ball in singularly unhelpful conditions for finger-spinners. He backed it up with 104 not out in Ahmedabad in India’s first innings of their short home Test season and 54 (in a valiant losing cause) in the final essay of the last Test against South Africa in Guwahati.
In a league of his own
A return to India sparked a return to wicket-taking ways. Even though India played five full bowlers, including three tweakers more than once, he snared 18 wickets in four games to reiterate his efficacy when there is even the slightest of assistance on offer. Jadeja the Test player is in a league of his own.
But not so much Jadeja, the 50-over all-rounder, one must concede. It’s been more than five years and 29 innings since he last made a 50-plus score (66* against Australia in Canberra in December 2020) but that’s not such a big concern by itself because at No. 7, where he has batted for most of those knocks, the opportunity to produce a half-century doesn’t present itself often. More worryingly from the team’s point of view, he has picked up more than one wicket an innings just once in his last 11 bowls – encompassing 90 overs – while his economy has failed to match up to his usually miserly standards.
These numbers have been exaggerated in the last seven weeks, in successive three-match series at home against South Africa and New Zealand respectively. Jadeja played in all five of India’s Champions Trophy games in Dubai in February-March, where he didn’t have a great deal to do with the bat though he did strike the winning boundary that took Rohit’s men past New Zealand and to ultimate glory in the final. With the ball, he performed largely a holding job alongside Axar Patel, allowing wrist-spinners Kuldeep Yadav and Varun Chakaravarthy to wreak havoc; only five wickets from 42 overs, sure, but only 183 runs conceded for an excellent economy of 4.36. He was subsequently left out – ‘rested’? – for the white-ball tour of Australia in October before being recalled for the home outings, where he wasn’t at his fluent best.
Soaring economy rate
In five batting innings, he eked out 99 runs but at a strike-rate of more than 90 just a solitary time. His bowling was singularly ineffectual, the lack of wickets compounded by a soaring economy rate. Especially against New Zealand, India’s bowlers came under the pump, mainly but not exclusively from the scything willow of Daryl Mitchell. Jadeja’s 48 overs in six matches produced a lone wicket, and was made to look even worse because he went at 6.21 runs per over. Uncharacteristically, he dropped catches he would otherwise have gobbled up and missed hitting the stumps when it appeared difficult to do so, prompting the wags to uncharitably label him ‘Jaded-ja’.
How much should we read into his frugal returns from these two series? The knee-jerk reaction will be to dismiss him as a spent force, which has been the case in several quarters, but are six matches, however disappointing, enough to dismiss the pedigree of Indian cricket’s most prolific left-arm spinner in international cricket? Perhaps it has been made so by Axar setting a stall as a worthy replacement who has proved himself repeatedly. If the debate all leads towards the next 50-over World Cup, the edge is clearly with the younger man – Axar is only 31 while by the time of the African safari, Jadeja will be nudging 39. But India have shown in the past that they can fit both these similar types of players in the same XI, even if that has largely been in the subcontinent.
Like Rohit and Kohli, Jadeja has no international cricket until at least June. All of India’s assignments in the next seven weeks are in the 20-over version – five T20Is against New Zealand beginning on Wednesday followed by the World Cup. The IPL, where Jadeja will represent his alma mater, Rajasthan Royals, this season, will allow him to stay in touch with the game, and perhaps rediscover his mojo and enthusiasm because make no mistake, recent patchy form notwithstanding, there is plenty of fight left in the bat/sword-wielding left-hander.
