Why Ben Stokes and Indian cricket should now handshake Ravindra Jadeja in respect

Indian Express

19 hours ago

After a net session, before the Old Trafford Test, Ravindra Jadeja, while walking to the team bus, had tapped his index finger on his temple. This was his way of answering a query about his phenomenal run-making spree in England. His match-saving hundred in the fourth Test on Sunday had come on the back of four successive 50s in the previous two Tests. Was he trying something new or had he added some new strokes to his game? 'No … it's about leaving the ball in England,' the all-rounder would say.
Over his 13-year long international career, Jadeja has left many balls, especially the curved one that life keeps throwing at him. Now he is enjoying the rewards of the years of patience.
For a cricketer with non-existence PR, no real backer, no godfather or even a mentor – Jadeja has had a miraculously long career. His unfaltering fitness, constant skill update and his capacity to bounce back has made him outlast the game's poster boys and brand ambassadors.
Jadeja has been sidelined, undermined, written-off and a few months back he was about to be left out of all Indian teams for good. But the all-rounder didn't make noise, or get stories planted or make his angst public. Jadeja's world is his cricket, family and the farm house where he nurtures and rides his favourite horses.
Those in the know say that, earlier this year, post the Border Gavaskar Trophy loss, Jadeja was to be given the golden handshake. Along with Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli; plans were in place to politely tell him that his days are over. The inputs from the earlier team management hadn't been laudatory.
Jadeja could be dispensed with – that was the message on the sticky note that the last set of decision-makers left behind. It was the intervention of the present set of coaches that gave Jadeja one more chance, it is learnt.
Post BGT, when picking the team for ICC's 50-overs tournament, his name wasn't to be in the Champions Trophy side. After a discussion among the present team management, Jadeja got a reluctant nod. His name was the last to be added to the Champions Trophy squad.
And as it has happened so often in his career, this was all that Indian cricket's greatest survivor, needed. Whenever the curtains threaten to fall on his career, Jadeja changes the script and lives to tell the tale.
A formidable performance with the ball at Champions Trophy was to be followed by his Gary Sobers-level runs in England – only the great West Indian has 5 scores of 50 plus in England from N0. 6 or lower in a Test series. Once again at 36, Jadeja, for now, is the team's indispensable member.
After the Lord's near-miss, the Indian skipper Shubman Gill gave 'rare' praise to his team's senior-most player. '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 very rare … the kind of composure that he showed is tremendous … ,' the captain had said. Such words haven't been used for this one-of-a-kind cricketer who has served Indian cricket silently for years now.
From being the main all-rounder who helped Virat Kohli win the under-19 World Cup in 2009 to the Great Escape at Old Trafford in 2025, Jadeja has a staggering body of work. In between there are his Player of the Tournament achievements in Champions Trophy 2013, many Man of the Series performances in Tests and winning the IPL with a six and four. But still he wasn't projected as a star. Somehow, over the years, Jadeja wasn't taken seriously by fans or the teams he played for.
In teams of the past, he was one of the boys or the friend to the captain. Once on the Kapil Sharma comedy show, Virat Kohli was asked – 'Kaun sabse jyada phekta hai (Who tells tall tales the most?'. The answer was Jadeja. Dhoni once called him 'Sir Jadeja' in his tweet and that would inspire a million funny memes and give him a title he hates. 'I hate being called Sir. If you wish, call me Bapu, that's what I like. This Sir-Var, I don't like at all,' he had once said.
These days Jadeja gets treated as Sir in the dressing room. Unlike his position in the Indian team led by MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma; Jadeja 2.0 is the distinguished senior of the team.
He is among the few players who is seen having long discussions with coach Gambhir. In Shubman's team, Jadeja is an example to emulate and an influential voice in the dressing room. Unlike others, he hasn't positioned himself as some 'captain without a captain's armband.'
The other day during a press conference on this England tour, he was asked if he ever aspired to be a captain. He almost broke into a chuckle and said 'that time has gone, I have been playing cricket from 13 years now.'
Strangely such has been the timing of his career that he often gets overshadowed by the stars he plays with. As an all-rounder, Jadeja would score 300 plus scores in first-class cricket but the main run-getter of his domestic team Saurashtra would be Cheteshwar Pujara. He would be Dhoni's trusted go-to player but Suresh Raina would be designated Man Friday.
He would be India's main spinner for years but somehow it would be R Ashwin who would be called the spin spearhead, thinking spinner and match winner. Jadeja's numbers were better than Kapil Dev, Ian Botham, Bishan Bedi but 'greatness' was not bestowed on him.
On this England tour, the team doesn't have the towering presence of the just retired mega-stars and that's why the shadow that hid Jadeja has lifted.
Over the years, Jadeja has got maligned as the selfish cricketer who doesn't work towards the team cause but bats to keep his position safe in the team. It is said that in tough tight games, Jadeja would expose the tailenders to the bowling and stay unbeaten.
On this England tour, Jadeja has squashed that narrative. At Lord's, he methodically farmed the strike when batting with Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj to take India so close to an unlikely win.
At Old Trafford he enhanced his image. This was an inning that in a way defined Jadeja.
Very early in the innings, Joe Root dropped him at slips. Jadeja rarely wastes a second chance. Not making a fuss over it, Jadeja would mentor Washington and also listen to him.
He has inside him a unique kind of aggression. The only manifestation is when he turns his bat into a sword and swirls it around.
Like most kids in Jamnagar, the region where a King still rules, Jadeja has grown up hearing stories of valour. He often mentions the 12th century Sorath Chudasama king Ra Khengar on his social media. All around Saurashtra, folk singers, till date, regale large audiences with tales of his bravery at Lok Dayros (folk assemblies).
Jadeja is a war veteran, he knows which battle to pick. So when Ben Stokes and men showered him with sledges, he was unfazed. He has been in such situations before in these parts. On the 2014 tour, James Anderson had picked on him and he got booed at Lord's. But that didn't stop him from shining with the bat and swirling his sword.
Stokes didn't want him and his partner to complete their tons but that didn't blow Jadeja's lid. He smiled and said it was his captain's call. He kept leaving balls but would also keep delivering blows in between.