Ravindra Jadeja: A team man who outlasted Kohli, Rohit and Ashwin in Tests

TimesofIndia.com in Birmingham: When Ravindra Jadeja walked out to bat in the first innings of the Edgbaston Test, India were in a delicate situation with the scorecard reading 211/5. India had lost Rishabh Pant and Nitish Kumar Reddy in the space of ten deliveries, and England were one wicket away from triggering another collapse.

The collapse which was seen in both innings of the Headingley Test, and the collapse which forced India to add more depth to their batting.All the depth talk, however, would have been thrown out of the window had Jadeja not dropped anchor with captain Shubman Gill and navigated the side out of danger in the final session of the day's play. With his experience, grit, and stubborn resistance, the left-handed batter showed why he remains an asset in the longest format, a no-brainer on the team sheet, and has outlasted the likes of Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, and R Ashwin in Tests.

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Jadeja (2012), Ashwin (2011), Kohli (2011), and Rohit (2013) made their first appearances in whites close to each other, and while the last three have called it a day, the all-rounder is going strong and doesn't look like going anywhere anytime soon. Time and again, his place has come under the scanner, and shots were even fired at him after the Headingley Test.

What does he do in response? He lets his performance do the talking for starters, and when the sword comes out for a little dance, it's a comforting sight to see the crisis man do the job when it matters the most.

At the venue where his name is inked on the Honours Board near the reception for the century he scored three years ago, Jadeja was agonisingly close to doing a repeat before he fell eleven runs short of the magic number at the stroke of lunch on Day 2. Head down, he dragged himself to the dressing room to rapturous applause for the 203-run stand with captain Shubman Gill, which put India in a dominating position.For a dressing room undergoing transition and starting a journey under a new Test captain, Jadeja has now become the senior pro who has seen a fair share of movement during his long international career.

His entry into the Indian Test dressing room came at a time when seniors like Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Sachin Tendulkar, and Harbhajan Singh were either on their way out or getting there.With the likes of Kohli, Ashwin, Ajinkya Rahane, and Cheteshwar Pujara, Jadeja soon became a core member of the Test unit—both home and away—and the preferred option for overseas Test assignments. The criticism often came his way for not picking up a bag of wickets in SENA countries, but his job wasn't to be the leading wicket-taker but the support cast for the pace battery, which was put in place by Kohli and Shastri and then carried forward by Rohit and Rahul Dravid.

The useful batting and gun fielding completed the package and made him the obvious choice ahead of specialist spinner R Ashwin in the squad. The off-spinner, who often competed with the left-armer for that lone spinner spot away from home, had beautifully explained what Jadeja brings to the table and why he has continued to slip under the radar and not be celebrated enough."Jadeja always goes under the radar. He is a 'Jackpot Jango.'

He is +10 in the field, also bowls well, and bats in pressure situations as well. We don't give Jadeja enough credit. Even at this age, he can cover the entire area from long-on to deep square leg while standing at mid-wicket," Ashwin had said on his YouTube channel earlier this year.He made his debut in a Playing XI where the current coach Gautam Gambhir was still the opener back in the 2012 home series vs the same opposition, England. It was a series India lost 2-1, that forced the then selectors and team management to start preparing for the future—the future which was going to have Jadeja's name consistently written on the team sheet.