Ravindra Jadeja: King of the soft ball
He’s a road warrior, making runs when India need them overseas.
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The ball is soft, and many batters hate this. They like it when it comes on, rebounding off their blade and not losing any pace from the surface. But then in comes the man who loves it. Like Shivnarine Chanderpaul before him, he matches the lack of energy from the ball with soft hands. His bat is dead, and so is any hope in the bowler’s heart.
If you want him out after the 40th over, a crowbar won’t do; you need dynamite.
India’s lead has edged over 200, a milestone it looked set to pass comfortably earlier. But now India have to deal with bad light and a swinging ball. Suddenly, it’s tough again. An entirely different type of cricket with five batters out and England finding life.
But then in comes the number seven. He was a bowler, good at his job. But then he assembled the bits and pieces of his game, and they made him bat higher. His role was no longer to just bowl, now it was saving the batters too.
Yet again, he had to do his job, and everyone else's. Shepherd his wayward flock through the long-forgotten back half of the innings. Prowling the badlands and taking down one old pill at a time.
He is, Ravindra Jadeja; king of the soft ball.
***
Mohammed Siraj was out after middling the ball, and India lost the Lord’s Test.
After Nitish Reddy’s dismissal, India were 81 runs away from the target. Siraj said if they lost by 80 it would have been fine, but a loss that close was heartbreaking. That it even got to the situation it did was mainly because of Ravindra Jadeja.
Only AB de Villiers and Daryl Mitchell have faced more deliveries batting at six or lower in a Test match in England in the 21st century. If you just take the fourth innings, his 181-ball effort ranks fourth.
England beat India, but they didn’t beat Jadeja.
People lauded him for his gritty effort. Yet, some also thought he batted too slow and did not take enough chances. They criticised his game sense, and a few were disappointed he could not pull off a Ben Stokes Headingley 2019-type classic.
And it was not just fans on social media. Even Ravi Shastri, his former coach, said, “If Jadeja has 40% of the belief of Stokes, he would win even more matches.” He added that it wasn’t about talent, but more about him taking charge.
However, unlike his English counterpart, Jadeja doesn’t enjoy batting in the fourth innings. Even after an unbeaten 61, he still averages only 21.4. Stokes is up at more than 37.
It’s not that Jadeja can’t whack the ball. We’ve seen him do it at the death in white-ball cricket, and he can up the ante at times in Tests too. But this was a wicket where others struggled to hit the ball off the square, England set the field back very deep, and even the six he hit kept the boundary rider interested until the end. The shape of Lord’s made twos difficult as well.
Jadeja and Stokes are very different kinds of Test batters. And over their whole careers, Stokes is the better with the bat. But on current form, you’d easily pick Jadeja. Once we factor in their bowling value across conditions, it’s not really a debate.
Jadeja is a weird choice for number seven, because he’s never been great while batting with the tail. He really is set up to support a top-order player. This Lord’s knock was one of the best innings when partnering with the rabbits. It certainly helped that Jasprit Bumrah and Siraj were able to face 14 overs between themselves.
But here is a man who scored a century and five more fifty-plus scores in the series. Batting on day five, he almost got his team over the line once and secured a draw from a bit of a tricky situation. Only three players have made more runs than him in this series, and he’s outscored every English batter so far.
Ravindra Jadeja, the all-rounder has started getting his due for the world-class player he’s been for more than a minute now. But his batting overseas has gone to another level. He’s a road warrior, making runs when India need them overseas.
***
Eleven years ago, Ishant Sharma bounced out English batters to win India a Test at Lord’s. At that time, India were really struggling in overseas Tests, so it really hit with fans. Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ajinkya Rahane and Murali Vijay all had moments in the game.
But among all that, there’s one knock that’s a bit forgotten. When Jadeja walked out to bat, India were effectively 179/6 in the third innings. He smacked his first Test half-century, scoring 68 off just 57 balls. He was quicker than a run a ball against Anderson and Plunkett, and struck at over 150 versus Broad.
After the knock, Shane Warne said on Sky, “He’s been underachieving with the bat. He can bat, but you know, he’s been a bit lazy. It’s nice to see him come out and play his shots today and show everyone how he actually can play.”
However, it was just a flash of brilliance in an otherwise unremarkable series for the Indian all-rounder. Moeen Ali dismissed him thrice that summer. And in his first 13 innings across South Africa, New Zealand and England, the slower bowlers got the better of him on five occasions. Four of those were offspinners.
You might think he got out trying to attack them, but he was dismissed defending three times. That is definitely a bit odd for someone with three triple centuries in domestic cricket, and a lot of experience facing spin growing up.
Perhaps it was just dumb luck, but it meant he did not have great returns at the crease. After that series, Jadeja did not play India’s next 11 Tests in SENA countries. He was unavailable for a few due to injury, but not chosen in others.
India had an incredible player, but he wasn’t fully formed. He was like Groot from the end of the first Guardians of the Galaxy film. People knew what he could do, but he hadn’t grown into it yet.
***
India played R Ashwin and Hardik Pandya in the first four Tests in England in 2018. But Jadeja finally got an opportunity in the fifth match at the Oval. By now, he was one of India’s two most important players in Asia. But this is his chance to prove his worth when India are touring. His team are in trouble - 160 for 6 in response to England’s 332. And that’s when he scores his second half-century in England. He got an unbeaten 86 as India finished with 292 runs. He also took seven wickets in the match.
That match changed India’s plans, and Jadeja became the fulcrum of the team.
Since that match, he has 1316 runs in 38 innings at an average of 42.45 in SENA countries. His strike rate dipped from 69 in the first 13 innings to about 51 in this duration, suggesting he found his true Test batting style of protecting his wicket like a secret service agent does the president.
He also went from being a walking wicket to averaging over 97 against the turning ball. No SLA or leggie has been able to send him back to the pavilion since that Oval Test. That sounds a lot more like the young man who made loads of runs against spin.
Against fast bowling, he averages around 35 at a strike rate of above 50. Back then, his runs per dismissal was about 31, but he smashed the ball at a strike rate of more than 70. So his approach against seam has also become a lot more about staying in rather than hitting out.
This is now what we think of with Jadeja, his batting is stern, with self-imposed limits. Like a recovering sugar addict on a balanced diet.
***
India are rolled over for 36, and Virat Kohli is back home on paternity leave. India take a bold move - they replace the star batter with the ace spin-bowling all-rounder.
It’s when you really see India believing in him consistently as the number seven. He had batted there five times in the 2014 tour of England, but after they mainly used him as a number eight away from home till this series. He makes 57(159) at the MCG and 28*(37) at the SCG, and is now a permanent fixture in India’s top seven in overseas Tests.
The only Indian batter who gets starts (scores of 20+) more often while batting in the top seven is Rishabh Pant.
Also, only the wicketkeeper has a higher median score, while even KL Rahul is behind him.
When we look at median balls faced per innings, obviously Pujara is in a different league. Jadeja is sandwiched between Vihari and Rahul. His numbers completely hold up.
His best run with the bat in this period has come in England. Of course, some of that is because of the wickets he’s played on. But this is where his impact is fully felt. Rahul and Jadeja are oddly alike; they both play the ball very late and with soft hands. While Rahul’s overall game is simply better, the way Jadeja plays makes perfect sense as to why he is that good in England.
He’s also incredible against the soft ball. In the Bazball era, few batters - even including England’s - have been more or as effective as him from overs 41 to 80. Shoutout to Daryl Mitchell for making his 280 runs without losing his wicket even once. Apart from his infinity average, only Shubman Gill and Tom Blundell have better averages than Jadeja. Naturally, the home batters have a higher sample size, and batting has certainly gotten easy in this phase. But even then, Jadeja’s remarkable record sticks out.
When the air goes out of the ball in England, he’s the man to choke out more runs.
He has gone up against Stokes the most in this period, scoring 58 runs off him and getting out once. These are the two legendary all-rounders of our era, going straight at each other in their pomp. There is something kind of Wild West about these two standing up in the dust of the old ball, while others have fallen around them.
Stokes comes in swinging though, like a reckless cowboy looking for a brawl. Jadeja is sitting at the other end, chewing some straw, and keeping his gun in his holster until he needs it.
Stokes doesn’t get beat much, but he can’t get Jadeja.
***
It’s the summer of 2022, and India are in England to play the fifth Test of the series that started last year. But lots of things have changed. Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum have taken over the England Test side, while the captain-coach duo of Virat Kohli and Ravi Shastri is no longer together. Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul - the opening pair which was a big reason for their success in the first four matches - also aren’t available.
India are batting first, but they’re in massive trouble at 98/5. Jadeja walks in to bat in only the 28th over, yet he makes a brilliant 104 against an attack of James Anderson, Stuart Broad, Matthew Potts, Ben Stokes and Jack Leach. He bails India out of trouble with Rishabh Pant. They don’t eventually win the Test, but it’s this partnership that gives them a big first innings lead.
Since the 2018 Oval Test, Jadeja averages 26 when he’s in to bat in the first 40 overs of Tests. He was always a late order man, and he built his Test success around that. But it doesn’t help as much early in the innings. After the 40th over, his average jumps up to 55.
However, in England he’s had to come in early six times, yet he’s played two memorable knocks: the century at Edgbaston and that effort in Lord’s. But it’s true that one of the reasons why Jadeja has been really good in England is because a majority of his knocks have come after that period. The top order have done their job, and Jadeja mops up the rest.
Playing late, defending with soft hands, looking for singles. Smart, but limited batting. It doesn’t always mould to the situation needed; it’s not fluid, it’s solid.
But while he’s great later on, the ball moves for a long time in England. If we look at the innings where the team’s runs per wicket was under 30 (90/3, 150/5 etc) in England since Oval 2018, Jadeja has scored 394 runs in nine innings at an average of 56. That includes one century and three more scores north of 50. Clearly, he’s shown he can handle a crisis when he’s batting there.
So these are not soft runs, it just takes a grandmaster of soft hands and balls to make them.
***
India lost their fifth wicket in the 55th over today - exactly when Jadeja wants to bat. The ball was swinging, and it was tough for a little while. But he fought through it with a series of soft blows and smart plays. When Jaiswal was out, he overcame any wobble there too. He and Dhruv Jurel continued the good work. And he pushed that lead to over 300.
Then England took the second new ball, and for ten deliveries, he was pretty good. But then one seamed a lot, and the next ball he played an open-faced guide from Tongue and found Brook at second slip.
He made his 50, ensured a proper lead, and left the rest to his understudy and partner, Washington Sundar. Again, India needed him to fulfil his role, and again, job done.
When Brook took that catch, it was the first time England had dismissed him in the second innings in this series. India may yet draw or lose the series. But no matter the result, England will remember who the king of the soft ball is for a long time.