Men shaping India's rise

No two players from one domestic team have made a bigger difference to India’s Test fortunes in the last one year or so than the Saurashtra duo of Cheteshwar Pujara and Ravindra Jadeja.

After a bright start to their Test careers and subsequent dip in their fortunes, both Cheteshwar Pujara and Ravindra Jadeja have found a second wind to their careers with some consistently good performances in their chosen speciality. Pujara currently is India’s top-ranked Test batsman in ICC rankings at No 3 while Jadeja is No 1 in Test rankings for both bowlers and all-rounders.

Pujara, who bats at No 3, is the main engine of the Indian batting. His brings both solidity and substance to the order with his unruffled mindset and an insatiable appetite for big runs.
Since his career-resurrecting unbeaten 145 in Colombo in 2015, Pujara has emerged as India’s top run-getter in Tests with 2026 runs in 36 visits to the crease at an average of 61.39 with the help of seven hundreds of which two have been double tons.

During the same period and in as many innings, skipper Virat Kohli has managed 1861 runs at 56.39. That he has outperformed Kohli, who not too long ago was considered the best Indian batsman in all formats, is a testimony to Pujara’s rising profile in the side.

“I say this regularly, he (Pujara) and Ajinkya are our two best Test batsmen, especially in the middle order,” raved Kohli of Pujara. “They’ve been doing so well consistently. Pujara, I would give him more credit because he only plays one format for India. And to be able to have that hunger and passion day in day out, working hard on his game, coming out and having those consistent performances takes a lot of mental strength. And he’s a guy with a lot of mental strength. He obviously has the game. He knows how to score runs, which is the most important thing. He has evolved massively as a batter since then. All of us have, but Pujara’s game has gone to another level,” he observed.

Jadeja has been equally valuable, engineering many an Indian win. After playing the perfect foil to off-spinner R Ashwin, he has managed to emerge out of his shadows. While he may not possess the bag of tricks that Ashwin does, Jadeja’s strength lay in exploiting the conditions. He is accurate and effective on pitches that don’t offer him much and dangerous on surfaces that have some bite and turn. Sidelined after the tour of Australia in 2014-15 when he didn’t get a chance to play a single Test, Jadeja’s stock has only increased since his return for the home series against South Africa in 2015.

The left-arm spinner has bagged 110 sticks in his last 20 Tests at an average of 20.82 and a strike rate of 54.3. To put his performance in perspective, you only have to look at Ashwin’s show during the same period. The Chennai bowler has played three more Tests than Jadeja during the same period and has 141 victims at 22.42 and a strike rate of 48.6. Since the home series against England last year, Jadeja has in fact outbowled his senior mate and his top-ranking above the second placed Ashwin reflects his growing stature in the team. Throw in his more than handy batting, his alacrity and exuberance on the field and his ability to finish off his overs in a flash, Jadeja is any captain’s dream player.

“Guys who have both abilities are very rare to find,” Kohli said about Jadeja after the second Test against Sri Lanka. “That’s where we think they’re very precious, especially in the longer format because they provide you with great balance. He can give you a very quick 60-70 runs anywhere at any stage of the game, it can really turn the game. Remember Lord’s, I remember Dharamsala against Australia, those are very important innings. The 90 against England in Mohali.

He’s bowled so much that the other discipline was left behind, but now he’s catching up in that as well. Once he scores runs, then he gets confidence with the ball also. He’s always in the game, his fielding as well. I would say he’s a very valuable cricketer for us,” Kohli explained.