The thread that bound together cricket’s golden age of all-rounders was players who bowled fast and batted flamboyantly. Imran Khan, Kapil Dev, Richard Hadlee and Ian Botham are not merely cricketing greats, but emblazoners of 1980s’ blitheness; Imran and Kapil were totems in their country’s coming-of-age phase, their relevance extending beyond their feats.
Ravindra Jadeja doesn’t walk with a halo, or inhabit the rarefied space of the greats, but it’s time he is counted among the finest all-rounders in the game. Not merely for his staggering numbers, but the fight and flavours that make him a compelling watch.
Genuine, by classical yardsticks
Few cricketers have warranted as many classifications and reclassifications as Jadeja has. Or forced changes of perception. When he burst forth, he was typecast as a left-arm spinner who could wield the long-handle down the order — snug-fit to the requirements of white-ball cricket — whose brash self-belief verged on arrogance. The third-fourth innings hangman who made his profit from India’s ordeal-by-spin policies.
The player who batted resiliently emerged next. He shed some of his bluster, but vestiges of his stormy early youth remained.
Then arrived the HD, multicoloured spin upgrade, who made surfaces largely irrelevant, and batted with the defensive righteousness of top-order batsmen. In the past six years, he has been bowling as efficiently as he has been batting. So much so, he could bat in the top six and could also be selected separately as a front-line bowler. And win the game using both skills.
Seven-year peak
In 48 Tests since January 2018, Jadeja has accumulated 2,521 Test runs at an average 42 and snaffled 161 wickets at 26.16. In this period, his numbers are considerably better than the two considered the most prolific all-rounders of this era.
Bangladesh’s Shakib-Al-Hasan’s corresponding numbers are 30.75 and 29.62. Ben Stokes’s reads 34.85 and 30.61. By the classic yardstick — batting average minus bowling average — Jadeja’s numbers are as glittering as those of the finest to have ever graced the game. Not to forget his effervescence on the field.
Better differentials than Botham, Dev
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Only 11 cricketers have achieved the rare feat of 3,000 runs and 300 wickets. It’s not the ultimate list because it doesn’t include the names of giants like Jacques Kallis (who ended his career eight short of 300 scalps), Garfield Sobers (235 wickets), or Keith Miller (with a batting-bowling differential of 14). Also because some of them enter the list by virtue of their longevity; their batting is defined by canniness down the order than technical robustness. Shane Warne and Chaminda Vaas are classic examples.
Among those considered the elites of the generic all-rounder umbrella, Jadeja could hold his head high. He has an average differential of 12.03. Only Imran owns a better stat (14.88) in the group. Ian Botham’s is 5.14, Kapil’s is 1.83 and Richard Hadlee’s 4.86. Kallis’s is a staggering 22.72, but then he is a case of sporting exceptionalism.
Ravindra Jadeja: Greatest behind Kapil
Jadeja might have better numbers than Kapil, but not the influence of the latter at a time when India was but an emerging force. Since the latter’s laboured farewell, India has suffered an acute shortage of genuine all-rounders. Some promised and withered, some prioritised white-ball cricket, the body wilted for some others, the mind caved in for several.
Whereas an all-rounder who bowls fast is a more glamorous and valued proposition, a spin-bowling all-rounder brings in as much raw utility. It’s a fair argument that Jadeja had prised out more than half of his wickets at home (238 out of 326 scalps), but he has not been as bad abroad as perceptions about him sometimes make it out to be. Beneath the middling overall average of 36.36 abroad are averages below 30 in Australia, South Africa and Sri Lanka. He has been a largely peripheral bowler in swing-heavy New Zealand, especially during India’s tour in 2019-20, but had his moments in England.
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To contextualise Jadeja’s numbers, Harbhajan Singh averaged 38.07 abroad, even though he won India games in New Zealand and South Africa. Among Indian bowlers with 200 wickets, only Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami and Ravichandran Ashwin have struck more frequently than him (a wicket every 58th ball on average). Only five have more five-wicket hauls than him. None of them have ben as equipped with the bat as he is.
Kapil combined strong technical foundations with a bravado approach that fetched him 5,000 runs and five hundreds, most of them being counter-attacking masterclasses. Ashwin had more Test hundreds than him and scored over his spin-peer on aesthetics, but was far less consistent (average of 25).
Tightest defence in team
Jadeja’s defensive technique, honed on slow-low decks in Saurashtra, was tighter than many of them raised on matted or concrete surfaces elsewhere. His front-foot stride is long and definite; his weight-shifting to either foot fluid. He leaves precisely, the bat is seldom diagonally flexed. Among current Indian batsmen, he is the most technically organised, and bats without frills or flourishes.
As his career has progressed, Jadeja has trimmed the impulsive traits of his batting too. Little wonder then that he has been among India’s most reliable batsmen in the last half a decade. England has been more home than his home. He averages 38.76 in 29 innings there, better than his numbers in India; the left-hander has waged battles in Australia, most memorably the 57 in the first innings of the Melbourne Test in 2020, the sequel to the 36 all out in Adelaide. In this phase, he was more consistent than Virat Kohli (average of 35.79) and Rohit Sharma (40.79). He straddled several roles too, those of counterpuncher, partnership-builder, and lower-order rock.
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Jadeja might not yet have the aura of Kapil or Imran or Botham, nor the dizzying numbers of Kallis, but he is certainly among the finest all-rounders of his era and India’s best behind Kapil.
