Ravindra Jadeja: When simplicity is the ultimate sophistication

If you ask a random person about their favourite current Indian cricketer, Ravindra Jadeja is unlikely to be the response.

You'd either hear Virat Kohli or Rohit Sharma. You might hear KL Rahul or Jasprit Bumrah as well or Rishabh Pant . Only after the batters have been exhausted, including the likes of Venkatesh Iyer, would you hear Ravindra Jadeja. And that is not because he is not better than them.

Firstly, because of Sunil Gavaskar and Sachin Tendulkar, we tend to be biassed towards batters. We are always looking for the next Tendulkar or Gavaskar, so batters are whom we are drawn towards immediately.

Secondly, players who are swashbuckling, are an attractive proposition. We are drawn towards players who play with a giant spotlight around them. We are drawn to players whose personalities are bigger than themselves.

At this point, you would have realised that Jadeja belongs to neither of the two categories. Or rather, he doesn't belong to either category, but you can certainly make a case that he could fit in both. That is the most wonderful thing about Jadeja.

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Ravindra Jadeja - an underrated all-rounder

Australia vs India: 2nd Test - Day 1

Sanjay Manjrekar got into a controversy by calling Ravindra Jadeja a 'bits and pieces cricketer':

“I am not a big fan of bits and pieces players ,which Jadeja is at this point of his career in 50-over cricket. In Test matches, he is a pure bowler. But in 50-over cricket, I would rather have a batsman and a spinner.”

Even at that point of Jadeja's career, Manjrekar was wrong to call Jadeja what he did, and in the way he said so. However, there is some truth to the fact that Jadeja is a bits and pieces cricketer. Except instead of an assortment of small items, the bits and pieces combine to offer something huge and valuable.

Majrekar meant it in the way that Jadeja wouldn't make it to the team as a pure batter or pure spinner alone. And that's the only reason he makes the team - because he is someone who can do a little bit of both.

That was largely true for the early part of Jadeja's career. But right now it is 100% likely that Jadeja would walk into any team in the world and in any format of the game - as a finisher or spinner or an all-rounder. Jadeja might be one of the few players in the world who could walk in as a specialist fielder, if not anything else.

Because Jadeja is so renowned for his fielding prowess, his spin bowling often goes under the radar. However, he almost always operates in any team alongside a specialist spinner. But Jadeja is truly a captain's dream bowler.

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What makes Ravindra Jadeja special?

England vs India - Royal London One-Day Series 2014

For starters, Jadeja has one of the fastest over rates. He has a short run-up and a bowling action designed to not give the ball much flight in the air but beat batters with pace. Moreover, like other spinners, Jadeja does not try too many variations.

His job is to bowl six balls, and he will bowl all six in the same spot on the pitch, minor variations aside. Nine times out of ten, the captain can count on Jadeja to deliver that.

Whether that translates to taking wickets is not always necessary or relevant. In T20s, Jadeja can slip in three or four overs without the batter barely noticing what's going on, which is worth its weight in gold. In seven IPL seasons, he has picked more than ten wickets, which is truly admirable.

And buried underneath his bowling is a batter who can play at any position from 5 to 7, and who can adjust to the changing demands of the game. His last two IPL seasons have been some of his best ever. Jadeja scored 232 runs in 2020 at an SR of 171 and average of 46. A year later, he scored 227 at an SR of 145 and a whopping average of 75.

Thus it makes it frustrating how Jadeja has been criminally under-utilised in T20Is. The rise of the KulCha era sidelined Jadeja and his spin twin Ravichandran Ashwin, robbing them of valuable game time.

Fun fact: Jaddu has bowled a mere 40 T20I overs in the last three years for India. To be fair, the team has recognised his importance to the team in ODIs and Tests, where he picks himself whenever he is fit.

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Ravindra Jadeja is not a stereotype

India vs Scotland - ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2021

Jadeja is a player who excels precisely because of the simplicity of his game. Yes, he is capable of scooping the ball and playing audacious reverse hits when required: just ask Harshal Patel what Jadeja can do with the bat. He supplements that with simple things - running hard between the wickets, converting ones into twos, trickling the ball down to third man to rotate the strike, etc.

When bowling, he leaves the thinking to the likes of Ashwin and Bumrah and does what is required of him: bowl six deliveries as quickly as he possibly can, delivered into the pitch and on the fourth stump line - nothing more, nothing less.

When fielding, there seems to be only one rule Jadeja follows - if the ball is airborne anywhere in his vicinity, it deserves to be caught. Should he take it in a reverse cup or an underhand catch doesn't really matter to him. He will run, and he will invariably catch the ball.

What if the ball is played along the ground? Well, if Jadeja can see the stumps, he will aim for them. And he will hit them because that is what the captain expects him to. What is there to think about?

Jadeja, despite getting all the warm affection on the internet and memed into Sir status, still needs more recognition. Not just as a cricketer who can do all things but someone who does all the things so well that it leaves his teammates to do stuff they would not be able to do without him holding one end.

Oscar Wilde once famously said, "to define is to limit". Ravindra Jadeja is hard to limit precisely because he is difficult to define. Unless, of course, you define him as a simple cricketer who is also the most sophisticated. In other words, Jadeja is not a stereotype.