At 36, all-round Jadeja shows no signs of slowing down

At 36, Ravindra Jadeja excels with 659 runs in 7 Tests, proving vital for India post-retirement of key players and aiming for records in cricket.

Mumbai: After the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series was lost, Indian cricket strategists held a review at the start of the year before taking some tough calls. R Ashwin had left the scene. Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli were on a weak footing even before they announced their retirement in May. For Ravindra Jadeja, of the same generation and value, it was felt he was unaffected by age.

Allrounder Ravindra Jadeja, who was named Player-of-the-Match in India’s first Test win against West Indies in Ahmedabad on Saturday. (AFP)

The spin all-rounder has proved them right. The left-hander has raised his batting to another level. At 36, Jadeja is having his best calendar year with the bat, scoring 659 runs in seven Tests at an average of 82.37. His Ahmedabad hundred against West Indies was his second of the year. In the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy series, he scored five consecutive fifties besides a hundred.

Basics in place, supreme belief in his defence and sticking to his strengths, Jadeja’s batting was long underutilised in the lower-middle order. Of his 129 Test innings, he has batted at No.7 or 8 on 82 occasions. It is only in the past two years that he’s begun to bat at 5 and 6 and the results have been instant.

Fitness freak

“At this stage, I am not thinking about other records or milestones, just working on my fitness and enjoying my cricket,” he said. “Whenever I am at home, I always work on my fitness so that I just continue doing what I’ve been doing for so many years.”

Jadeja is still supremely fit, covers the ground with some speed and effects run outs from the boundary. He may appear to be a natural, but the Saurashtra all-rounder told R Ashwin in an interview that it is down to regimented training as a boy under coach Mahendra Singh Chauhan. That included a 20 km run on empty stomach and catching practice, diving and sliding on wet, muddy surfaces – all that made his basics so strong.

“I work a lot on my fitness. I don’t put up a lot of videos of what all I do on social media, but I do it,” he said. “It has been making a difference on the ground, and it feels good that I am able to give 100% at this age. It doesn’t feel like my fitness level is going down, so it puts me in a good frame of mind.”

Spin mentor

At a time when transition is on across formats, Indian cricket can’t have enough of Jadeja, certainly in Test cricket. Now, with Ashwin retired, India can focus more on spinners who pitch the ball in the right areas to maximise home advantage. It a big factor in registering quick points on the World Test Championship (WTC) charts.

At Ahmedabad, Jadeja didn’t even get to bowl enough from the end where there was more rough to play with. Against the hapless West Indies batters, his nagging accuracy, bowled with a repeatable action was enough. With the next Test starting at the Ferozeshah Kotla in Delhi on Friday, Jadeja will give the visitors no respite.

The onus would be on him to lead the rest of the spin attack for the rest of this WTC cycle. Kuldeep Yadav will get a lot more game time. Washington Sundar is fast learning the ropes. When it’s time, Jadeja can pass on the baton to Axar Patel. Another young left-arm spinner from Rajasthan Manav Suthar is making good progress.

“Kuldeep and Washy have already played so many matches. In the future, you will ask that Jaddu isn’t here, someone else will be there. This is inevitable. It will keep happening,” he said.

Although Jadeja says he doesn’t keep a count, if he plays all the matches in the current WTC cycle, he would get to within one game of becoming the 15th India player to make 100 Test appearances. However, no milestone can encapsulate the true value of his three-dimensional brilliance.