All-round Jadeja shows no signs of slowing down

Player-of-the-Match in the Ahmedabad Test continues to show the way for the next generation

- Rasesh Mandani

After the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series was lost, Indian cricket strategists held a review at the start of the year before taking some tough calls. R Ashwin had left the scene. Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli were on a weak footing even before they announced their retirement in May. For Ravindra Jadeja, of the same generation and value, it was felt he was unaffected by age.

The spin all-rounder has proved them right. The lefthander has raised his batting to another level. At 36, Jadeja is having his best calendar year with the bat, scoring 659 runs in seven Tests at an average of 82.37. His Ahmedabad hundred against West Indies was his second of the year. In the AndersonTendulkar Trophy series, he scored five consecutive fifties besides a hundred.

Basics in place, supreme belief in his defence and sticking to his strengths, Jadeja's batting was long underutilised in the lowermiddle order.

Of his 129 Test innings, he has batted at No.7 or 8 on 82 occasions. It is only in the past two years that he's begun to bat at 5 and 6 and the results have been instant.