Top 5 bowling performances in the Indian home season of 2016-17

#2 Ravindra Jadeja (7-48, India vs England, 5^th Test match 2^nd innings)

Jadeja’s career-best haul helped India win the series 4-0

With India taking an unassailable lead of 3-0 in the five-match series, the last Test against England was a dead rubber. However, the visitors, with nothing to lose, were adamant at offering somewhat of a fight back and scored a sizeable 477 in the first innings. India, led by Karun Nair’s 303*, declared at 759/7, thus effectively ruling out any chance of losing the dead rubber.

All England had to do was to make sure that they did not implode on the final day. But they did just that, collapsing from 103 for no loss to 207 all out, all thanks to Ravindra Jadeja. The left-arm spinner, who recently became the No. 1 Test bowler, finished with career-best figures of 7 for 48, to help India win the series 4-0.

The wicket was not offering enormous turn but the left-arm spinner got the English batsman to commit mistakes. After a wicketless first session, Jadeja took three in the second to pave the way for India’s victory. In the final session, he rattled through the lower order, taking seven more to finish things off in style.

It was the first time in the history of the game that a team scoring 450+ in the first innings had been handed an innings defeat and Jadeja was the wrecker-in-chief.