Unassuming Jadeja thrives as senior statesman of young Indian team

Mint

7 hours ago

Manchester, Jul 20 (PTI) Ravindra Jadeja is thriving in the role of a senior statesman of the young Indian cricket team following the retirements of the 'big three'.
Alongside R Ashwin, he was the architect of India's umpteen Test wins at home but his accomplishments stayed off the radar. Virat Kohli was the undisputed superstar of that team.
Now with Ashwin, Kohli and Rohit Sharma hanging their boots, Jadeja is by far the senior most member of the side. Yet, he remains unassuming about his ways and does his job efficiently, especially with the bat in the ongoing series in England.
When Shubman Gill was appointed Test captain, those in favour of Jasprit Bumrah expressed their opinion but Jadeja, a veteran of 83 games, was never part of the debate.
"Captaincy ka time ab chala gaya," said Jadeja in his inimitable style during the Edgbaston Test when asked about his ambitions in the leadership role.
He made 89 and 69 not out in that famous win in Birmingham before racking up two more fifty plus scores in the following Test. His 61 not out at Lord's almost took India over the line as he batted sensibly with Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj to take the game deep from 112 for eight.
The 36-year-old has defended as well as anyone in the series and when needed, has used the long handle to good effect. He remains the best fielder and though he was able to extract some turn both at Edgbaston and Lord's, wickets have eluded him in the series.
Besides being invaluable in all facets of the game, Jadeja is also mentoring the young blood in the team and of late has developed a strong bond with Kuldeep Yadav, who has been warming up the bench since the start of the series despite the clamour for his inclusion.
After the heartbreak of Lord's, captain Gill highlighted Jadeja's immense value as the ultimate team man.
"He is one of the most valuable players in India. The experience that he brings in, the skill set that he brings with his bowling, batting and fielding is something that is very rare and hard to find. And the kind of composure that he showed today, it was just tremendous to watch," said Gill.
"I think batting with the lower order of the tail has been one of the things that we spoke about in the previous two matches... that our lower order of the tail hasn't been contributing as much. The character and the courage that they showed was tremendous."
Jadeja's exemplary commitment to the game doesn't stop at the highest level. When not on national duty, he makes it a point to turn up for Saurashtra.
"If Jaddu has his way, he will turn up for all district games also. Despite being one of the finest Test cricketers of India, he remains as humble as ever and lives a quiet life," said a veteran Saurashtra official.
When the Indian squad mingled with the Manchester United stars on the sidelines of the fourth Test, Jadeja expectedly took the back seat, staying true to his easy going personality.
Having arrived here on Saturday, Jadeja and the rest of the squad members had a closed door training session at Old Trafford. There is rain threat through the week but when the weather clears out, Jadeja will be the first one to put his hand up.