Why doesn’t India respect Ravindra Jadeja – the GOAT all-rounder? | Cricket News

Why is Ravindra Jadeja, despite his incredible body of work, India’s most underrated cricketer ever? The answer to the question doesn’t need a high-level probe or a PhD thesis. It requires urgent soul-searching.It’s part of a worrying trend that points to an ugly truth – the cricketing world’s biggest fan base doesn’t really get cricket. The blame rests with an ecosystem that can’t look beyond a couple of superstars and a hype-machinery that values marketability over skills. It’s a travesty that India talks more about Jadeja’s fielding and doesn’t get hyperbolic about his skill that makes him the greatest all-rounder the nation has produced.
Wasn’t that Kapil Dev? Statically, it’s a big no. Jadeja in his 72 Tests has a batting and bowling average of 36.14 and 24.13. The corresponding numbers of the pace legend at the same stage of his career were 29.83 and 28.47.
Day One of the India-Bangladesh Test was the classic example of how Jadeja’s batting efforts often get overlooked. Chennai boy R Ashwin’s hundred deservingly got the limelight but Jadeja’s equally important unbeaten 86 got mentioned in the 8th-9th para of most match-reports. When bowling, he took wickets of Shakib Al Hasan and Liton Das when they were starting a dangerous partnership. Bumrah took 4 wickets, and Jadeja was back to his home – 8th-9th para. This has been the story of his life.
India’s Ravindra Jadeja plays a shot during the first day of the first test cricket match between India and Bangladesh, at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, in Chennai. (PTI)
It is not that his performances are under-appreciated but the praise lacks the gravitas it deserves. The Chennai effort, at best, is as a late-order fightback. Not a defiant counter attack and act of valour. Jadeja innings are called gritty and dogged, adjectives like magical are reserved for those who bat higher up the order.
As was the case at Chennai, pundits rarely gather the courage to say that Jadeja adjusted to the conditions better than say a Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli or even Shubman Gill. Did anyone see the broadcaster coming up with a split-screen analysis to show what Jadeja did right and the stars didn’t? Even in his finest hour, Jadeja doesn’t get that 15 minutes of fame to be called the best batsman on the day.
Coach Gautam Gambhir and captain Rohit Sharma – known for their inspired decisions – should give a serious thought to sending Jadeja in the Top 5. Easily the most improved and ever-evolving multi-tasking cricketer of his generation, Jadeja has three first class triple hundreds, a difficult century at Birmingham and a Test average of 44 in the last three years. Gambhir loves a left-hander in the top order. It is too tempting to switch the positions of Jadeja and Pant in the line-up. It will be true to the principle that those with better technique bat higher than the swashbuckling chance-takers.
India’s Ravindra Jadeja celebrates with teammates after taking the wicket of Bangladesh’s Litton Das on the second day of the first test cricket match between India and Bangladesh, at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, in Chennai. (PTI)
In the last few years, Jadeja has repeatedly shown that he is a better player of spin than most middle-order batsmen – especially KL Rahul. Compare the way they dealt with the Bangladesh spinners. Unsure about the length of the ball, failing to read the turn; Rahul was caught at forward short leg. Jadeja, on the other hand, read the flight of the ball perfectly. He was stepping out regally, meeting the ball on the bounce and also driving straight. This was Test cricket, he wasn’t lifting it over the screen as he would have treated the white ball.
Take note of how he gets behind the ball and the bat that comes straight down like a pendulum in motion. But still at the end of the day, there is rarely any talk about his immaculate technique. The pictures playing on loop are of him swinging his bat like a sword. That his batting average is higher than Gill, Rahul and virtually same as Ajinkya Rahane, might be the least known factoid of Indian cricket. He has better numbers than the original Fab Four spinner – Bedi, Prasanna, Venkataraghavan and Chandrasekhar – might hurt the old-timers.
Ashwin has seen his bowling partner, he knows him well, he appreciates him. “Jaddu was of real help, there was a point in time when I was really sweating and getting a bit tired. Jaddu noticed it quickly and guided me through that phase. He told me that we will not convert twos into threes which was really helpful for me,” he says. “Jaddu has been one of our batters for our team in the last few years.”
India’s Ravindra Jadeja celebrates his half century during the first day of the first test cricket match between India and Bangladesh, at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. (PTI)
Still the ‘thinking cricketer’ tag will be for Ashwin. Records back what Ashwin says, Jadeja has made a habit of bailing India out of trouble but he still is not Mr Dependable. He isn’t even seen as a mentor, role model or a leader. It seems those outside appreciate him more, value expertise.
In 2021, Australia and Queensland left-arm spinner Matthew Kuhnemann, after a game against South Australia where he got a bagful of wickets, got the nickname ‘Jaddu’. Kuhnemann was over the moon, he was a die-hard Jadeja fan. When picked for the Border Gavaskar Trophy series in India, Jaddu from Australia aspired to meet th OG. Nathan Lyon arranged the meeting. “It was probably about 15 minutes, he [Jadeja] was just giving me some awesome tips; we talked about everything,” Kuhnemann would later say.
Another Aussie, left-arm spinner, Ashton Agar too calls himself a Jadeja fan. In 2020 he visited India for a three-match ODI series. He was blown away when he met Jadeja. “He’s an absolute rockstar: smacks them, gun fielder, and spins the ball. When he’s batting he has a really positive attitude, and he takes that attitude into the field as well,” he said.
Rockstar is also what Shane Warne had called him during the inaugural IPL edition when Rajasthan Royals won the trophy. The Indian fans call him Sir – it was a title Jadeja hates. It was an inside CSK joke that MS Dhoni insensitively made public. The fans picked it and soon Jadeja was the subject of a million memes. It is high-time, India takes Jadeja and his skills seriously.
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