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A cricketer absolutely committed to the template of agility and outstanding fieldwork whilst fully geared to contribute with both bat and ball. There've been fast bowlers who have excelled for India. There have been spinners who have excelled for India as well.
But only a few have combined the dogged art of slow left arm orthodox spin bowling with valuable batting down the order to lend further might to a stable of excellence that is the Indian cricket team.
And full kudos and credit to none other than Sir Ravindra Jadeja, fondly called as "Sir" by fans and his own teammates. There's nothing that he can't do. He can dive, jump, hop around in the field tirelessly whilst also putting a tight control of runs from one end and when needed, can round up as a useful, focused batter down the order.
He's done all of that for India for countless years in both formats of the game but his exploits, in Test match cricket, especially against England need deserving mention and maybe, we underrate this very aspect of the game.
But random statement this or factoid?
Very much the latter, I say to thee. Very well then, how so?
Of the 323 career wickets that Jadeja has taken in Test match cricket from 18473 deliveries, and that is a serious number any given day. The left arm spinner from Gujarat has taken 70 wickets against England.
Now here's a case in point.
Jadeja's current Test opponent is England and after India may end up scoring a really big first inning score, which should ideally happen, after a great day 1 start at Headingley, somewhere it will come down to Bumrah and Jadeja to tighten screws around the English batting.
Now of the 48 Test wickets Jadeja has taken, he has actually claimed not less than 22 wickets in England, while claiming 50 at home back in India.
With a best bowling performance of 4 for 79 that happened seven years back in the day, circa 2018, at Kennington Oval, Jadeja's brilliant spell of spin bowling saw the likes of Buttler, Jennings and others fall to top quality bowling.
This is just the kind of performance that the committed left handed all rounder would like shine bright with this time around in England as well.
What's also interesting to note is that R. Jadeja is yet to take a first Test fifer in England.
But bowling done, what about Jadeja the batter?
On the whole, the popular all rounder from India has played 81 Tests in his international career. Now, not only has he played the most number of Tests versus England, but even scored the most runs as a Test batter for his country against the dominant English side.
Interesting?
With 1031 runs, to be precise from 33 Test match innings, Jadeja has also struck two Test hundreds against the English. And his batting average in the mid-thirties, one could argue, needs some work. Does it not?
It's important to remember his effort the last time around the two teams played a Test series, prior to the ongoing one.
That was back in 2024 and in the Rajkot Test, the then 'player-of-the-match' Ravindra Jadeja not only took 7 wickets but also struck a focused and commendable 112. That was a game changing contribution for the host team.
