Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel – never club them together, never write them off | Cricket News

Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel possess cricket skills that get labelled similarly. But that’s like confusing tomato sauce for ketchup. Or a crow for a raven. It needs an expert eye and nose for nuance to appreciate the difference between the all-format multi-skilled cricketers. They have the same font but Jadeja is italicized.To bracket them as a fastish spinner is to dovetail Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammad Shami as identical 140 plus quicks. The taller Axar banks on bounce and drift. Jadeja, easily the better-skilled tweaker, also has the drift but possesses a bigger break, deadlier skidder and a more surprising armer.
Of the two, the older and far more experienced Jadeja is the more classical red-ball run-getter. As for Axar, captains these days play him as a white-ball pinch-hitter, a role that fits his style perfectly. This doesn’t mean Jadeja, the present day trusted rear-guard, isn’t equipped to jump up the order for any urgent kamikaze operation. They seem like peas from the same pod but they aren’t. Both are incredible catchers, swift and measured movers around the field but the power and accuracy of his throws gives Jadeja the fielder, the edge.
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India’s Ravindra Jadeja celebrates the dismissal of England’s Adil Rashid during the first one day international cricket match between India and England at Vidarbha Stadium in Nagpur. (PTI)
However, they have a few common under-publicised, less-appreciated traits that do justify that ‘spin-twins’ label. They are Indian cricket’s indefatigable survivors, their careers a study in the sort of perseverance that cannot be taught.
Over the years whenever there has been a question mark over their place in the Indian side, they have bounced back to underline their relevance.
Case in point is the ongoing England series. Days before the first ODI at Nagpur, the selectors drafted in Varun Chakravarthy, the ‘variety shop of spin-bowling’. The new-age ‘six-variations per over’ wicket-taker had enjoyed great success against English batsmen in the T20 series and so the selectors and the team management wanted him around for the ODIs. After India’s Champions Trophy squad was announced there was some chatter about India lacking middle-overs wicket-takers – the 50 overs game-changers. Those in the know also say that at the selection committee meeting, there were voices that had backed Chakravarthy and didn’t whole-heartedly support the inclusion of two left-armers in the squad.
Very early in the Nagpur game, Jadeja would remind the world of his indispensability in any format of the game. It is one thing to get wickets in a T20 game when batsmen are always ready to throw caution to the wind, or even a mild breeze, and another to get Joe Root in a 50 overs game after he has been at the crease for 40 minutes. That too when the master batsman was setting the mid-overs base for an all-out assault later.Story continues below this ad
Armer from hell
Jadeja would showcase his practised art of getting wickets when the batsman isn’t attacking. It was an armer that drove into the right-hander Root like a trunk. It hit the pads in front of the stumps. This wasn’t the case of a basher miming a slog but one of the game’s top batsmen being beaten while on the back foot. To pull that off, one needs someone with Jadeja’s body of work.
Axar would get Jos Butler in the 36th over – another crucial middle-over strike. There aren’t many in Indian cricket like Axar. Who except Jadeja can do an Axar – first come up with a spell of 7-0-38-1 and later turn up at No.5 to score a 52 from 47 balls after a mini-collapse.
India’s Axar Patel makes an unsuccessful appeal during the first One Day International (ODI) cricket match between India and England at Vidarbha Cricket Association (VCA) Stadium, in Nagpur, Maharashtra. (PTI)
It’s their Test match expertise that makes Axar and Jadeja the ideal middle-order batsmen in 50-overs cricket too. In the recent tour of Australia, Jadeja stood out with his batsmanship in a line-up that repeatedly succumbed to pace. Go back to the tapes, see how Jadeja, with his piercing eyes, would get into the line and at the last minute move his bat like a well-oiled sliding door giving the ball a clear passage to the ‘keeper. It was the tour when even the best in business spent over a month in search of their off-stump. With a highest of 77 his average was better than most frontline batsmen. Before that when Australia had toured India, it was Axar who played a few series-changing knocks. It was the same in the T20 World Cup that India won last year. Axar getting wickets, scoring runs and holding on to blinders.
Despite their numbers and deep understanding of every aspect of the game, Axar and Jadeja don’t shout about their achievements from rooftops nor are they angsty about being unsung. They don’t even play the social media game. Jadeja outlasted the great Ravichandran Ashwin in all formats but he never spoke about being a ‘captain without the title’. He did get a chance to lead CSK but found Dhoni’s shadow too overbearing. He would quit in the middle of 2022 season but hit a six and four on the last two balls of the final next year to win CSK the title. No righteous comments, no vague sarcastic posts, just a strong statement with the bat. Axar too has been part of the team in IPL where he was easily the MVP of the team but there were no agent-driven PR interviews to project him as a potential leader.Story continues below this ad
India’s batter Ravindra Jadeja celebrates his century during the third Test cricket match between India and England, at Niranjan Shah Stadium, in Rajkot, Thursday, Feb. 15, 2024. (PTI Photo/Kunal Patil)
Back in the day, Jadeja, promoted up the order, had played a match-winning hand at No.5. Later at the press conference, he was asked if he needs to play up more often. “Number paanch toh hoon, aap chahte hain ke open karu kya? (I was playing at No.5, do you want me to open?),” he would chuckle while giving the answer. Jadeja and Axar are two cricketers who know their strengths and limitations. They don’t overreach but they don’t allow the world to undermine them.
They are the same but different. Jadeja and Axar speak the same language Gujarati but their dialects are vastly different. They hail from the same state but their cities don’t have much in common. Jadeja’s Jamnagar has palaces and a rich cricketing legacy; Axar’s Nadiad is a temple town. But what ties them is their temperament.
They are at peace with being the team’s backroom boys, but try pushing them off the stage and they come back roaring to force the spotlight on them. That way Axar is just like Jadeja.
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