 "Ravindra Jadeja sets aside disappointment of missing out on ton with crucial spell on Day 2 at Chepauk")
Franchise cricket has been around long enough in India for one to debate if franchise loyalty is an issue at all anymore. If confirmation was still required, it came during Season 17 of the Indian Premier League when, on his return to the home base of the team he had led with aplomb for the first two seasons of its existence, India’s then white-ball vice-captain was roundly booed for shifting allegiances.
Hardik Pandya had led Gujarat Titans to the IPL title on their debut in 2022 and hauled them to the final the following year, when it took a six and a four off the last deliveries of the title clash played on the reserve day for Chennai Super Kings to snatch the crown away from the defending champions.
Yet, when Pandya turned out at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad last season as the new captain of five-times champions Mumbai Indians, a huge audience in the largest cricket ground in the world was in an unforgiving mood. Even though Pandya was a son of the soil, the fans took a dim view of his ‘ditching’ their franchise and moving back to the team where he had made his name as an excellent all-round cricketer. Public memory is neither short nor convenient.
The orchestrator of that stunning late coup on a dramatic Monday night nearly 16 months back has been in the limelight over the last two days at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. Himself a Gujarati like Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja has a cricketing home away from home in the Tamil Nadu capital, where he is as revered and adored as any performer for Chennai Super Kings. Apart from ‘Thala’, of course. Like in most parts of the country, in Chennai too, there is Mahendra Singh Dhoni, and then there is everyone else. But among the ‘everyone else’, Jadeja is the first among equals, a huge draw given his exploits for more than a decade for the most followed IPL franchise.
Impact Shorts
View AllJadeja is three cricketers rolled in one – a fabulous middle-order batter whose left-handedness is a virtue in more ways than one, a terrifically smart left-arm spinner who is deadly on bad pitches but more than a handful even on good ones, and easily the most dangerous all-round fielder in world cricket now. He is capable of altering the destination of a game of cricket in any format with excellence in one discipline alone, but when he weighs in with crucial contributions in both, he compels attention.
Day one of the first Test against Bangladesh was dominated by hometown hero R Ashwin, who produced a subliminal sixth century, with effortless ease under immense pressure on a spicy deck against an opposition with its tails up. Jadeja played willing second fiddle, not because he had to but because he wanted to. He understood that Ashwin was in the mood, that for the team’s sake, it was imperative that the two all-rounders complemented rather than competed with each other. He was 86 not out to Ashwin’s undefeated 102 at stumps on the first evening. A fifth Test century was his for the taking.
Until Taskin Ahmed, armed with the second new ball, deigned otherwise. Off the second day’s 13th delivery, he drew an outside edge from Jadeja that nestled in stumper Litton Das’ gloves. It was hard to say who was more disappointed – the batter himself, or the 13,501 fans who had streamed in early in the morning to drive their adopted son along.
Jadeja is the kind who will celebrate 86 rather than rue missing out by 14. He is a free spirit, evidenced by his unfettered celebrations while reaching a batting milestone when he uses his bat like a scything sword, revealing his strong left wrist. So, when India came out to field with 376 runs against their name, his disappointment had dissipated. He had a job to do, in the field and with the ball, whenever Rohit Sharma turned to him, no pun intended.
Rohit went to the left-arm spinner in the 23rd over to halt a pesky sixth-wicket stand between Shakib Al Hasan and Litton, and Jadeja obliged with the scalps of both the set batters before ceding centrestage to Jasprit Bumrah. Jadeja is quite used to it, sailing in the wake of more glamorous teammate-performers, but his colleagues value him immensely and even someone as gifted as Ashwin is in awe of his all-round skills.
Off the boot and in the safe hands of Pant! ☝️
— JioHotstar Reality (@HotstarReality) September 20, 2024
Ravindra Jadeja delivers yet again! 💪#INDvBAN #IDFCFirstBankTestSeries #JioCinemaSports pic.twitter.com/UMvDwJTlRk
The Ashwin-Jadeja combo is as feared and respected with the bat as with the ball. “You don’t plan for such things,” Ashwin said of the chemistry between the two spinning all-rounders. “Jaddu has always done so well, I always envy him. I’ve made that amply clear. He’s so gifted, so talented. He’s found ways to maximise his potential. He keeps it really simple. He can repeat it day in and day out. I wish I could be him, but I’m glad I am myself.
“He’s an exceptionally good cricketer, I’m happy for him,” Ashwin went on. “In so many ways, I think watching him bat over the last couple of years has also given me insights on how better I can be. Both of us have grown together. Both of us have done some special things. We really value one another at this stage and both of us are enjoying each other’s success more than ever before.”
They don’t call him Sir Jadeja without reason, do they?
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