Ravindra Jadeja: India's stealth warrior

PTI Chennai: Unless you're a freak like Jasprit Bumrah, bowlers playing alongside Ravichandran Ashwin can be pushed behind the giant-shadow of the master off-spinner, even if it's Ravindra Jadeja, a genius in his own right. Sometime during the Kanpur Test later this week, Jadeja, now standing at 299 wickets and 3122 runs, will join an elite club of cricketers to have achieved the grand double of 300 wickets and 3000 runs in the longest format. Bear it in mind, only 10 players, including two from India in Ashwin and Kapil Dev, have achieved this mark in the history of cricket and some luminaries such as Gary Sobers and Jacques Kallis are missing from that list too.

But still Jadeja's name hardly ever get mentioned in the same breath as some of the aforesaid all-rounders. In one way, the modus operandi of Jadeja is the primary reason for it. Ashwin is eloquent and is not afraid to talk about his skills in a press meet or in his YouTube channel. Jadeja does neither. He is quite happy to operate under the radar – like a stealth fighter jet. But put him into a situation that demands a bail-out operation, Jadeja's fighting instincts instantly come forth. In that way, he is very task-oriented. Take the case of the first Test against Bangladesh here, which India won by a whopping 280 runs. From 144 for six, Jadeja and Ashwin took India to 376 all out with a 199-run stand for the seventh wicket. Jadeja made 86, but the talk centred around Ashwin's home hundred. Jadeja took five wickets in the match, but Ashwin ‘out-bowled' him with six-wicket haul in the second innings.

There was a huge amount of talk about how Ashwin used the angles to set up veteran Bangladesh left-hander Shakib Al Hasan. However, there was hardly any mention about Jadeja dragging Litton Das through hell during his 10-ball stay before eventually snaring him. Jadeja is an artist whose strength lies not in his artistry but in his competitive spirit. But unfortunately, once again Jadeja' valuable all-round effort ended up as a footnote, visible only to a discerning observer.