India’s allrounder Ravindra Jadeja overtook Ravichandran Ashwin to become the sole number 1 bowler in the ICC Test rankings on Tuesday. The left-arm spinner has become only the third Indian player after Ashwin and Bishan Singh Bedi to top the bowling charts on his own.
The 28-year-old, who produced his best performance in a Test match in Ranchi – 9 wickets for 178 runs and 54 not out, has become a prime force in Tests, since his return to the five-day format in November 2015.
When selectors pick a cricketer – at whatever level – it is an investment they are making. The hope of the selectors is that the player will thereafter go on to win matches for the team over a period of time. While some players take to that role and become match-winners – like Virat Kohli is among the Indian batsmen or Ravichandran Ashwin is among Indian bowlers, some others settle into playing the supporting role.
One such cricketer, who appears to have happily settled into playing the supporting role is Ravindra Jadeja – the left-arm spinner.
The left-arm spinner was introduced into the Test match format after doing exceedingly well in limited overs matches.
Jadeja made an irresistible case for his Test match selection after scoring 794 runs (which included 2 triple centuries) and taking 24 wickets in five matches in the Ranji Trophy 2012-13.
In his initial days as a Test match cricketer, Jadeja was generally utilised as the third spinner – sometimes even as the fourth spinner - in the team. Despite that, he did just as well as the team’s premier spinner – picking up wickets fairly regularly and picking up wickets without conceding too many runs.
In 2013-14, when the Indian team had a string of overseas tours – travelling to South Africa, New Zealand and England – Jadeja was thrown into being the team’s premier spinner.
These were trying conditions for a spinner – yet Jadeja was thrust into that role, possibly because of his ability to keep a lid on the opposition. In the next few Tests, though Jadeja didn’t taste too much success in terms of wickets, he did extremely well in controlling the flow of runs. Where the scoring rate of the opposition stood at 3.38 runs per over, Jadeja’s economy rate in those six matches was a respectable 2.48.
Jadeja then missed nine Test matches in a row – starting the Oval Test on the tour of England in 2014 until the end of the tour of Sri Lanka in September 2015 – due to a combination of factors. He made his comeback to the Test team when South Africa visited India in November 2015, and Jadeja hasn’t looked back since. This, now, is Jadeja Version 3.0 – excelling in playing the support role.
There is no doubting that Ravichandran Ashwin is Team India’s preferred spinner. But what Jadeja can do, no other spinner in the Indian team can – and that is what makes him a special asset to this Indian team.
Bowling his left-arm spin, Jadeja is aiming to hit the stumps or the batsman’s pads all the time. He bowls the nagging length that batsmen hate, and bowls his overs in a flash.
Unlike many spinners who have a plethora of variations in their arsenal, Jadeja is the traditional left-arm spinner who relies either on the orthodox left-arm spin or pushes through the arm-ball to pick up wickets. What he does extremely well though is vary his pace, his trajectory or the angle from which he releases the ball.
What Jadeja has also been exceptional at in recent times is in dismissing the best batsman in the opposition ranks fairly regularly. In the four Tests against South Africa, Jadeja dismissed Faf du Plessis (4), Hashim Amla (3) and AB de Villiers (3) on a total of ten occasions.
In the series against England last year, Jadeja dismissed the England captain Alastair Cook on six occasions and Joe Root thrice. And now in the Test series against Australia, he has already dismissed Steven Smith thrice.
It is not often that you see one team having two of its bowlers top the rankings charts. But India have achieved it – with Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja occupying the first and second places respectively in the ICC’s Test rankings for bowlers.
While Ashwin has been among the top twenty bowlers in the world in the last four years and has steadily climbed to the top, it has been a rapid rise to the top for Jadeja, who has only played 29 Test matches so far.
Jadeja, who grabbed five for 124 and four for 52 in Ranchi, displaced Ashwin from the perch of the rankings by grabbing seven points after starting joint-first at 892 points.
Jadeja might be India’s second-choice spinner but there’s no denying that his performance – and his returns – in this home season are just as good as any frontline spinner.
*Data as of 24 March 2017.
(This article has been republished from The Quint’s archives. This story was originally published on 2 March 2017. Arun Gopalakrishnan is The Quint’s in-house cricket stats expert. He can be reached at @statanalyst)
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