Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy | Ravindra Jadeja standing the test of time

London: When Ravindra Jadeja made his Test debut way back in December 2012 against England in Nagpur, just a year after his fellow spin-mate R Ashwin and little more than batting supremo Virat Kohli, it’s fair to assume that hardly anyone predicted the southpaw to outlast the two future Hall of Famers of Indian cricket. 

As a spinner, Jadeja wasn’t spoken about in the same breath as Ashwin. The Tamil Nadu off-spinner, an engineer by education, was naturally gifted and innately intelligent. At one stage, he developed so many varieties that six balls in an over was not enough for him to unleash his complete arsenal. The abundance of ideas was at times his undoing, but Ashwin found the balance at the right time to emerge as one of India’s greatest match winners by going to clinch a record-equalling 11 Player of Series awards.

Jadeja, on the other hand, was a simple cricketer with a basic thought process. Born and bred on docile Saurashtra pitches, his USP was his ability to land six balls at the very same spot, over after over. Yes, he lacked the craft and guile of Ashwin, but through a period of time, he rose up the ranks spectacularly through sheer hard work to stand on even terms with his spinning partner. In fact, whenever India toured SENA countries — South Africa, England, New Zealand, and Australia — where they would play just one spinner because of the seaming conditions, Jadeja would often edge out Ashwin for the sole spinner spot.

What Jadeja did to make himself special and more appealing than Ashwin was being the ultimate team man, the kind of player every captain dreams of having. Even when wickets are tumbling on turning tracks, and if a captain asked him to bowl defensively, he would do that. Even if he was not picked in the playing XI but the team wanted him to field all the time, he would do it and brilliantly so. Despite his body experiencing 36 summers, Jadeja is still amongst the best fielders in the world. Wherever he’s stationed, his ability to cut the angles and get to the ball as quickly as possible and release it is a science in itself.

Then, there’s the batting, a facet of his game that wasn’t spoken about for long despite three first-class triple centuries. Again, he’s not graceful as Ashwin, who himself has six Test centuries, but when it comes to grit and graft Jadeja is second to none with four centuries and 26 half-centuries. Some of his best knocks, like the two fifties in the Lord’s Test, have come when India have been in trouble, especially overseas. He has seven half-centuries and one ton in England and three half-tons in Australia - a record even some batters will be happy to take.

This series, where Jadeja is the senior most player in a young Indian team, he has taken his batting to another level with four consecutive half-centuries with two of them unbeaten and missing out on a deserved ton in Birmingham. At the same time, he’s been on the mark with his bowling and fielding too, setting an example for the rest of the pack to follow. And doing it all with a minimum of fuss, like he does always. He could have been the hero at Lord’s where he scripted a sensational fightback with a dogged 61 to give hope for a dead and buried India, forging three excellent partnerships with the lower order. He kept defying England and when last man Mohammed Siraj was bowled by Shoaib Bashir with India 22 runs short, the pain was evident in his face. He stood all alone, wondering what more he could have done!

Jadeja couldn’t have done more. Once labelled as a ‘bits and pieces cricketer’ unjustly by a former player turned commentator, Jadeja is actually the quintessential ‘whole is greater than the sum of the parts’ sort of athlete. He isn’t great in one particular aspect but exceptional as a package. And he’s ageing like fine wine.