Ravindra Jadeja: Turn for the better

Ravindra Jadejas break-out series took many by surprise. But not those who knew him

Ravindra Jadeja began his cricketing life wanting to be a fast bowler. When his coach Mahendrasinh Jadeja told him to bowl left-arm spin instead,he did so reluctantly.

He finally relented and started bowling spin,but he still fired the ball in from around the wicket and never gave the ball air, says his childhood friend and Saurashtra teammate Balkrishna Jadeja. Our coach even tried ingenious methods like forcing a kid to stand in the middle of the pitch so that Revdi would be forced to toss the ball over his head. But he would fire in a few balls at rapid pace when the coach wasnt looking,and the kid would run away.

Continuing to bowl the same way,Jadeja has made an instant impact in Test cricket,with 24 wickets at 17.45 against Australia. His success has surprised a number of people,but not those who followed his rise through the ranks back in Jamnagar,his hometown. They always viewed him as a potential star,even in whites.

Especially on Indian wickets with some purchase on it, says Balkrishna. He has mastered the art of putting the ball on the right spot. If you ask me,Revdi can do it ball after ball even if he has his eyes closed.

Long before he left Michael Clarke and the other Australian batsmen looking like they had two left feet,Jadeja had given nightmares to a number of batsmen in domestic cricket,especially when points-table pressure has forced Saurashtra to resort to preparing unprepared wickets in Rajkot. In their last group match of the 2010-11 season,Saurashtra needed to beat Assam outright to stay in the Elite division. Jadeja had match figures of eight for 68 as the home team bowled Assam out for 127 and 76.

Hes done it away from home too. Last year,Jadeja ran through Railways in their own backyard with a 10-wicket match haul. Former India all-rounder and Railways skipper Sanjay Bangar says that Jadejas limitations he doesnt give the ball air or put too many revolutions on it end up being significant strengths on such tracks.

Unplayable

He bowls at a steady pace and on a track where the ball turns and the bounce is unpredictable,Jadeja is unplayable, says Bangar. He is not a left-arm spinner in the classical mould. Instead Jadeja tries to get more LBWs by bowling a very straight line with clever changes in pace. As a batsman,you are always trying to avoid getting LBW against him and hence the chances of being trapped playing inside the line of the ball are more. Moreover,he has a very smooth action and its impossible to pick his variations in pace because theres hardly a change in his delivery.

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Speaking of doctored wickets,Balkrishna reveals that the two Jadejas spent many an afternoon preparing the pitch at their local ground since they didnt have any groundstaff to assist them. And they always stuck to the same routine of watering the pitch a little early in the morning before rolling the pitch a few times in the afternoon. The wicket,more often than not,would crack up before long.

We used to play back-to-back matches on the same wicket. And by the second match,Ravindra was really a terror. His straight line ensures that the batsman is always guessing whether the ball is set to turn or not, he says.

Handy batsman

Its easy to forget that it was Jadejas two triple-centuries in the Ranji Trophy this season and not his bagful of wickets that had attracted the selectors attention in the first place. And as difficult as he might prove to be with the ball,he remains a handy bat in the same conditions,as he proved with a fighting 84 against Assam in that same relegation battle two seasons ago.

He simply loves to bat. He used to tire us out even after practice, says Balkrishna. Between the second and third Tests against Australia,Revdi flew in for a couple of local matches and ended up scoring a 100 and a 90.