An Astonishing Test Win, And The Simple Genius Of Ravindra Jadeja

Ravichandran Ashwin says that he envies what Ravindra Jadeja can do. Jadeja’s simple, repeatable action gives him unusual speed, control and endurance. Jadeja is very quick and very accurate. He is to finger spin what Shoaib Akthar was to fast bowling - effortlessly quick. That speed, allied iron control of length makes Jadeja very difficult to face.

The bread and butter for batters against the finger spinner is the drive. Square cuts and pull shots are rarely available. The sweep is a high risk, high reward option. The drive is relatively low risk. The glance and the flick are also available, but the spinner has to stray on the pads for this to be viable. The drive is versatile, and is attempted most commonly. On average, one in every 75 drive attempts produce dismissals. Drives produce runs at 5.3 an over (or 5.3 runs per six drives). The sweep and the reverse-sweep are high reward strokes which result in dismissal about three times as often as the drive.

Shots Categories batting against Slow Left Arm Orthodox Bowlers In Test Cricket

Jadeja is not only quicker than other slow left arm orthodox spinners, he also over pitches less often than they do. Due to these two features, he is driven about 4% less often than the average SLA (18% to 22%). This means that Jadeja forces batters to choose higher risk options than the average SLA.

The simple genius of Ravindra Jadeja is that he’s quicker and more accurate than the average left arm spinner and spins the ball just as hard. The options he offers batters are narrower than those offered by the average SLA. In conditions where the odd ball turns, this superior control and speed makes him far more effective than the average SLA. When you put Jadeja’s quality alongside those of other bowlers, then in conditions which merit two spinners, the current Indian attack is probably the greatest of all time. Jadeja makes the batter play “bad” shots because he rarely offers the bowlers good options, just like Glenn McGrath used to get wicket after wicket getting the batter to “fish” outside off stump.

In Rohit Sharma’s 17 Tests as the Indian captain, part-time bowlers have bowled 25 balls for India. Four overs and one ball. That is a measure of just how relentlessly India pursue winning. They lost (or spent) a wicket every 26 balls in the Kanpur Test. But they won it because they bowled Bangladesh out twice in 121 overs on a placid pitch. They won it because Jasprit Bumrah managed 6/67 in 28 overs on it. Bumrah, Ashwin, Jadeja, Siraj and Akash Deep made it possible for India to win a Test match scoring less than 400 runs in the two innings combined.

Great bowling makes all things possible in Test cricket, as India keep showing.