Ravindra Jadeja’s left-arm spin was put to an arduous test at Leeds. The final evaluation for his match figures of 47-5-172-1: room for improvement.
The Headingley pitch got drier as the first England-India Test progressed, and the stage was set for Jadeja to utilise the rough outside the left-hander’s off-stump. The last day’s play, however, did not pan out as expected.
Southpaw Ben Duckett (149, 170b) reversed the narrative Indian fans had hoped for by playing the reverse-sweep to perfection against Jadeja, and made sure England chased down the 371-run target without much fuss.
Reverse sweep, under normal circumstances, is not a percentage shot on a wearing day-five pitch. The marauding English batters don’t go by conventional wisdom, though.
Just the prospect of Duckett unleashing his beloved weapon got Jadeja to err in line and length. It’s another matter that Duckett brought out the audacious shot even when Jadeja found the rough.
There was enough help for Jadeja to work with in Headingley, but he could not deliver the desired results; hence, the finger-pointing at the finger-spinner.
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Getty Images
Duckett scored 36 runs in 16 balls (both innings) through reverse sweeps against Jadeja, and never once did the ball go in the air uncontrolled. Jadeja will have to come up with some answers to reverse this trend against the English opener.
“I could not believe how poorly he bowled, really. I’d likened it to owning a hammer but punching nails in with your fist instead – not landing the ball in the rough at all until, basically, it was too late. That was extraordinary,” Mark Butcher said on the Wisden Cricket Weekly Podcast.
“You talk about experience, and he has all the experience in the world. Somehow, it didn’t seem to click to him or Rishabh Pant, the ’keeper, that it might be a good idea not to keep missing the rough all day to the left-handers,” he added.
Under scrutiny
It is not often that a tweaker’s returns come under such scrutiny after a red-ball game in The Old Blighty — a land where swing rules over spin.
There was enough help for Jadeja to work with in Headingley, but he could not deliver the desired results; hence, the finger-pointing at the finger-spinner.
England is in the middle of an uncharacteristically hot summer. The tracks will stay dry (for English standards), and Jadeja will have to step up his game in the forthcoming Tests.
“I am going to be critical of Jadeja. This was a final-day pitch with rough patches for him to exploit. And while there were a couple of chances, we have to expect more from someone of his experience. These weren’t typical English conditions where the pitch offers nothing. I felt he didn’t use the rough nearly enough — especially against Duckett,” Sanjay Manjrekar told JioHotstar after India’s five-wicket loss.
The final day Headingley pitch.
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N. Sudarshan
It was not as if Jadeja did not make any meaningful contributions towards India’s cause. His 2.95 economy in the first innings was the best among Indian bowlers (a decent effort against the Bazballers). The lack of movement in the wickets column, though, took the sheen away.
In the second essay, after Duckett’s onslaught, Jadeja did come into his own against another southpaw, Ben Stokes. The English skipper, too, tried to employ the reverse sweep against the left-arm spinner.
This time, however, Jadeja was in better rhythm. He induced eight false shots out of the 16 balls that Stokes tried to play the reverse sweep in the second innings. Jadeja got his man soon, with Stokes top-edging an attempted reverse sweep straight to India captain Shubman Gill. Jadeja’s success, however, came after England had already breached the 300-run mark, and it proved too little too late. He did toil hard, but one would have counted on the No. 1 Test all-rounder to have a greater say in favourable conditions.
“Against Stokes, yes, he did make an effort. But it was only much later in Duckett’s innings that Jadeja started using the rough properly. When you’re dealing with experienced bowlers and seasoned batters, you expect a higher level of tactical awareness. Somewhere, I felt Jadeja was disappointing. The seamers had no help from the surface, but Jadeja at least had something in the pitch working in his favour,” Manjrekar added.
Decline
Jadeja’s stats in Test cricket have taken a hit of late. The premier all-rounder has not crossed the 30-run mark in his last six innings, and his overall numbers, too, are on a decline.
Since the start of the 2024 India-New Zealand series, Jadeja averages 23 with the bat and 35 with the ball (the exact opposite returns in the disciplines would have been near perfect). India’s progress report in the seven matches that Jadeja played during the period: six losses and a draw.
Jadeja’s journey towards bucking this trend in the bowling front is not going to be easy on English shores, where he has not got it right with his left-arm spin.
Jadeja has the second-worst average (48.07) and strike rate (102.80) as a bowler in England, only behind his numbers in New Zealand, where he averages 60.6 with a strike rate of 124.8.
Edgbaston, the venue of the second Test, holds some fond memories for Jadeja. He had slammed a century — his first outside home — and helped India post a mammoth 416 in the first innings of the rescheduled fifth Test (2021-22 series). A victory, though, proved elusive for the visitor as England chased down 378 in the fourth innings (sounds familiar) to level the series 2-2.
The all-rounder had gone wicketless in that Test and will be keen on starting his redemption arc by catching some edges in Edgbaston, the same ground where a 24-year-old Jadeja’s all-round brilliance (33 n.o., two for 24) paved the way for India’s 2013 Champions Trophy triumph.
Experience and accountability
A decade on, just like the volume of Jadeja’s beard, his responsibilities, too, have gotten thicker.
Though his athleticism in the field may not give it away, the 36-year-old is a veteran of 81 Tests. And experience does breed responsibility and accountability.
“I don’t like to give myself any tag. Whatever the team needs, I try to perform accordingly. As an all-rounder, sometimes a situation will come where you need to score runs and either save or win the match for the team. In bowling, you are expected to give a breakthrough. I consider myself a team player. Whatever the team needs, I will try to do it,” Jadeja had said after the 2022 Edgbaston Test.
Losing the experience of 296 Test caps after the retirements of R. Ashwin (106 Tests), Rohit Sharma (67), and Virat Kohli (123) means that Jadeja dons the senior tag in the Indian team now and he will be expected to set the benchmark for his younger colleagues.
Team in transition
A team in transition yearns for its seasoned players to lead the way, and India can ill afford a misfiring Jadeja.
The 36-year-old may have lost a few battles recently, and it has been a while since he brought out his iconic sword celebration after crossing a milestone.
The onus is on him to show the world that the warrior within remains unbroken, and the sword is still sharp for future duels.