In August 2015, when India landed in Sri Lanka for Virat Kohli’s first full Test series as captain, it felt like the beginning of something new. MS Dhoni had retired from Test cricket months earlier. Ajinkya Rahane, Cheteshwar Pujara, R Ashwin and Rohit Sharma were expected to carry India into the next decade.
Fast forward to 2026 and India are back in Sri Lanka, in transition again. This time, almost everyone from that generation is gone. Ashwin retired in 2024. Rohit and Kohli called time in May 2025. Pujara followed a few months later. Rahane is the latest to walk away.
“The most important thing is that he’s a multidimensional player. He’ll get you wickets, he’ll bat wherever you send him, No. 4, No. 6, No. 7 or No. 8, and he’ll still score runs. Then, in the field, he’ll produce a run-out or a catch that very few others can. He’s a complete all-rounder. That’s what makes him different from any other cricketer,” Saurashtra head coach Niraj Odedra told The Indian Express.
When he returned to the Test side in late 2015, he was viewed largely as India’s premier left-arm spinner. On the raging turner in Mohali against South Africa, or the unresponsive Chennai surface against England in 2016, Jadeja was a relentless wicket-taker who squeezed batsmen with unwavering accuracy.
Somewhere along the way, another dimension began to show. His technique tightened, his shot selection improved, his temperament settled into the longer format.
A maiden Test century against West Indies in Rajkot in 2018 announced the change. A career-best 175 not out against Sri Lanka in Mohali confirmed it. Then a hundred at Edgbaston in 2022, after India had slumped to 98 for 5. Three years later, 516 runs across a five-Test series in England left little doubt his batting belonged at the highest level.
Even now, that trust remains. With Shubman Gill unable to bat in the first innings of India’s warm-up against a Sri Lanka Cricket XI this month, Jadeja was pushed up to No. 4, a spot he wasn’t first choice for. He made 63 off 117 balls.
Odedra puts the biggest change down to something other than technique. “Himself. Nobody else. The biggest change was his mindset. He had to believe that he wasn’t just somebody who could bowl, but a player who could bat as well. He backed himself to such an extent that that’s what made him a better batsman,” he said. “People have this perception that he’s a bowler who can only bowl. But from a very young age, Under-16, Under-19, he always was a very good batsman. When he started playing for the Indian team, he realised that if he didn’t score runs, if he didn’t become a multidimensional player, then he wouldn’t last long like others.”
His father had told him something, years before any of this, back when Jadeja didn’t yet know cricket would become his living. “When I started playing cricket, my father gave me very important advice. At that point, I didn’t even know that I will be playing cricket seriously, forget playing for the country. He told me it’s your performance on the ground that matters,” Jadeja said in a separate interview to this newspaper in 2023. Ground mein perform karo, bus baat khatam, his father had put it. Perform on the field, and the chatter ends there.
The setbacks kept coming in different forms. In 2018, he found himself out of favour during the England tour, watching the first four Tests from the sidelines. Many players would have allowed frustration to creep in. Jadeja came back for the fifth Test, at The Oval, and made an unbeaten 86 and took seven wickets.
“That Test changed everything for me. Poora, complete, game. My performance, my confidence, everything. When you score in English conditions against the best bowling attack, it greatly impacts your confidence,” Jadeja told The Indian Express in 2021.
A fractured thumb in Australia in 2020-21. A forearm injury. A bruised rib. A serious knee injury during the 2022 Asia Cup. A hamstring problem in 2024. Tennis elbow during this year’s IPL. Each one threatened to derail him. Each time, he dusted himself off and found his way back.
While Jadeja fought those battles, the generation around him slowly faded. Time eventually caught up with everyone else.
Everyone else from that 2015 dressing room has moved on. Ravindra Jadeja simply refused to.
On his Test comeback after more than a year, Jadeja took 8/76, including 5/21 in the second innings, to help India defend 217 runs and win Player of the Match.
Jadeja produced an all-round masterclass with a half-century and a match haul of 10/154, that included 7/48 in the second innings, to help India secure a dominant victory.
Returning after knee surgery, Jadeja took a match haul of 7/81 and scored a crucial 70, earning him the Player of the Match, as India won by an innings and 132 runs.
Jadeja’s 86, including a 199-run seventh-wicket stand with R Ashwin, rescued India from 144/6 before he added match figures of 5/77 to seal a 280-run win.
Jadeja took 4/143 before making an unbeaten 107, sharing a 203-run fifth-wicket stand with Washington Sundar to help India bat out the final day and secure a draw.
Based in Mumbai, Shankar Narayan has over five years of experience and his reporting has ranged from the Ranji Trophy to ICC World Cups, and he writes extensively on women’s cricket. ... Read More
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