Ravindra Jadeja, Chennai, turning tracks - a tale like no other

Ravindra Jadeja has been synonymous with the Indian team across formats over the past decade. There have been phases where his importance to the side has been questioned but almost always, he has found a way to reiterate his worth. In fact, it has happened so often, that it seems futile to recount each one of those occasions.

A city that Jadeja has also been synonymous with is Chennai. He is not from Chennai. Far from it. Jadeja hails from Gujarat, which in terms of culture, could not have been further apart. Geographically, too, they are two different corners of the country.

But he does turn out for the Chennai Super Kings – an IPL outfit that those in Chennai absolutely adore, has become an emotion for thousands on the south-eastern coast, and makes them paint the MA Chidambaram Stadium (also known as Chepauk) yellow.

Considering the amount of cricket he usually plays in Chennai, it is, thus, not a surprise that the all-rounder relishes playing at Chepauk. Not just because of the support he enjoys, but also because the pitch suits him to the tee.

The ball holds up. It turns. It bites off the surface. It spins. All things that make Jadeja a very dangerous proposition. It is not really rocket science. It is, at the cost of sounding melodramatic, almost too simple – much like the city of Chennai, much like CSK, and very much like Jadeja’s bowling.

If you had any doubts about that, it would have been cleared across three hours and a bit against Australia. When the left-arm spinner came on to bowl, Australia were in a solid if not spectacular position. Steve Smith had seemingly set out his stall. Marnus Labuschagne, one of the five-time champions' best players of spin, was at the other end.

The ball was spinning from time to time. But nothing really prodigious to elicit memories of the Test series the two sides played earlier this year. All it needed was for someone from Jadeja’s class and know-how to show what needed to be done on that particular surface.

Ravindra Jadeja ripped through Australia at Chepauk

Of the three wickets he picked, the ball that got Smith would make the most highlight reels. After all, it pitched on middle, gripped in the surface, ripped past the shoulder of Smith’s bat, and then knocked back off stump. The perfect left-arm spinner’s dismissal.

But it was what Jadeja did before and after it that truly captured his worth and highlighted why he, especially on tracks that turn, is arguably India’s greatest bowling threat.

Jadeja, from the moment he came on to bowl, was accurate, and rarely gave the stumps away. Everything needed to be played, and with uncertainty over whether it would spin or not. As Smith found out, one of those eventually turned, and did so rather emphatically.

The ball that dismissed Labuschagne gripped similarly off the surface. It did not spin as much as the one that pegged back Smith’s off-stump but it spun just enough to take the top edge as Labuschagne attempted a sweep.

Alex Carey, having watched the carnage unfold from the dressing room, decided he would access the leg side at every possible opportunity. The only problem was that he perhaps thought too far ahead, and did not watch the ball as closely. He played around a relatively straight delivery and was trapped right in front.

Apart from being accurate, Jadeja also mixed up his pace beautifully. The ball that dismissed Smith was significantly slower, and the one that got Carey out was quicker. Labuschagne’s downfall was more about how he subtly changed his length.

All of this ties into the notion that Jadeja is, in fact, bowling as well as he has ever done in white-ball cricket. In 2023, he now has 18 wickets in 13 ODI innings, with those coming at an average of 28 - his third-best tally in a calendar year - where he has bowled in at least ten innings. His strike rate of 35.4 is also his third-best in a calendar year, using the same parameters as above.

Earlier this year, he was equally impressive for CSK in the IPL. He bagged 20 wickets, with those coming at a strike rate of 17.1 – both of those being the best he has ever managed in an IPL campaign.

The numbers, thus, back up that theory, and those who watched the first innings at Chepauk on Sunday, will now testify too. In many ways, it could also be a sign of things to come at the World Cup, especially if India play on tracks that aids spin.

On pitches that aid turn, the ball that does not deviate is often the most difficult to face. Jadeja, if you had somehow missed it, is one of the best at it. All he needs, in such situations, is for one ball to turn big and make the illusion of spin more dangerous than the actual spin itself.

The dismissal of Smith should have done that job, quite pointedly too. The best part is that Jadeja did so while keeping things simple – just bowling at the stumps, varying his pace enough, getting the ball to turn enough, and doing enough to beat the batters on both edges.

That it happened at Chepauk only adds a poetic layer to it.

Jadeja, Chennai, and turning tracks is a tale like no other. It premieres every year in the IPL (unless cricket is played in bio-bubbles), and often puts his side in pole position to win games, against top-quality oppositions.

He said it as much during the mid-innings break, where he proclaimed that he, as soon as he saw the wicket, thought that he should pick two or three wickets. It is not arrogance. It is the quiet confidence that he knows exactly what is needed.

The only aberration on Sunday was that it was the team in yellow that suffered…