Ravindra Jadeja

Personal life

Ravindra Jadeja was born on 6 December 1988. His father Anirudh was a watchman for a private security agency.His father wanted him to become an Army officer but his interest was in Cricket, he was scared of his father in his childhood. His mother Lata died in an accident in 2005 and the trauma of his mother's death almost made him quit cricket. His sister Naina is a nurse. He lives in Jamnagar.

Ravindra Jadeja got engaged to Rivaba Solanki on 5 February 2016; the couple married on 17 April 2016.

Youth career

Jadeja made his first Under-19 appearance for India in 2005 at the age of 16. He was picked in the Indian squad for the 2006 U/19 Cricket World Cup in Sri Lanka. India finished runners-up with Jadeja impressing in the final against Pakistan with a haul of 3 wickets. He was the vice-captain of the victorious Indian team at the 2008 U/19 Cricket World Cup. He played a crucial role with the ball in the tournament, taking 10 wickets in 6 games at an average of 13.

First-class cricket

Jadeja made his first-class debut in the 2006–07 Duleep Trophy. He plays for West Zone in the Duleep Trophy and for Saurashtra in the Ranji Trophy.

In 2012, Jadeja became the eighth player in history, and the first Indian player, to score three first-class triple centuries in his career, joining Don Bradman, Brian Lara, Bill Ponsford, Wally Hammond, WG Grace, Graeme Hick and Mike Hussey. His first came in early November 2011 against Orissa, in which he scored 314 off 375 balls. His second came in November 2012 against Gujarat, in which he scored 303 not out. His third came against Railways in December 2012, in which he scored 331 runs in 501 balls. Jadeja reached this milestone at the young age of only 23.

International career

Jadeja caught the attention of the national selectors with his strong all-round showing in the 2008–09 Ranji Trophy – 42 wickets and 739 runs – and was picked for the ODI series in Sri Lanka. His international debut came in the final match of the series on 8 February 2009 where he scored 60*, although India lost the match. In the 2009 World Twenty20, Jadeja was criticized for not scoring fast enough in India's loss to England. After the incumbent all-rounder Yusuf Pathan suffered a loss of form, Jadeja took his place at No. 7 in the ODI team in late 2009. In the third ODI against Sri Lanka in Cuttack on 21 December 2009, Jadeja was awarded the man of the match award following a haul of four wickets. His best bowling is 4–32.

He made a comeback into the Indian ODI side in the third ODI against England at The Oval in London. Arriving at the crease with India 58–5 after 19 overs, he scored 78, adding 112 with skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni and 59 off only 5.1 overs with Ravichandran Ashwin to help his side reach 234–7 in 50 overs. He also took 2–42 from his 9 overs and was named "player of the match", but England won the rain-affected game. His performance in the fourth ODI at Lord's was mixed: he gave away four crucial overthrows with a poor throw from the boundary, but then took a brilliant catch on the boundary off the last ball.

In the second T20I of the Australian tour in February 2012, Jadeja had figures of 1/16 in 3 overs and effective two run outs in the Australian innings. India went on to win the game and Jadeja was awarded Man of the Match, mainly for his fielding efforts.

After his impressive performance at the start of Ranji Trophy season 2012–13 in which he scored two 300+ scores in 4 matches (4/125 and then 303* against Gujarat at Surat; 331 and 3/109 against Railways at Rajkot in the Ranji Trophy 2012–13), he was called up to join the 15-member India Test team to play the fourth Test against England at Nagpur. In his Test debut against England at Nagpur, he bowled 70 overs and picked 3/117.

During the second ODI in the India-England series at Kochi, Jadeja smashed 61 off just 37 balls which took India to a total of 285. In the second innings, he bowled a remarkable spell of 2 for 12 in 7 overs helping India beat England by 127 runs and level the series 1–1. This performance earned Jadeja the Man of the Match award.

In the historic 4–0 home Test series win against Australia in February–March 2013, Jadeja took 24 wickets, dismissing the Australian captain Michael Clarke five out of six times in the series which cemented his place in the team as an all-rounder despite not contributing much with the bat. His seven-wicket haul including a five-for in the second innings of the final Test match earned him the Man of the Match award. He played an important role for India in lifting the ICC Champions Trophy 2013. He was the highest wicket taker of the tournament with 12 wickets which won him the Golden Ball. He made 33* with bat and took 2 wickets in the final against England.

He is ranked as the No.1 bowler in ODI Cricket by the ICC in August 2013. Jadeja is the first India bowler to top the rankings since Anil Kumble, who topped the table in 1996. He is the fourth India bowler after Kapil Dev, Maninder Singh and Kumble to be ranked No. 1.

Jadeja scored his maiden test fifty on 20 July 2014 playing against England saving the match for India who were struggling at 235/7. He made 68 runs from just 57 balls. His partnership of 99 with Bhuvneshwar Kumar helped India set England a target of 319.

Jadeja was selected for 2015 world cup in Australia despite not being 100% fit due to a shoulder injury. He took 9 wickets in 8 games. His returns with bat were modest, scoring just 57 runs from 5 innings. India went on lose against Australia in the semi final. After poor performance in next ODI series in Bangladesh, he was dropped from Indian team.

Jadeja returned strongly in the next Ranji season (2015–16), where he picked up 38 wickets from 4 games and 215 runs including 3 50+ scores. His strong performances were rewarded with selection in Indian test side facing South Africa at home. Jadeja helped his team to victory by taking 23 wickets in 4 games. He scored 109 runs the series which included crucial knocks lower down the order. Jadeja was included in Indian limited overs side touring down under to play 5 ODIs and 3 T20Is. In ODIs Jadeja bowled economically in a series where more than 3000 runs were scored in 5 matches. He took 3 wickets at economy rate of 5.35. He was the second highest wicket taker in T20Is, picking up 5 wickets in 3 games. In the second game of the series, Jadeja took a blinder off his own bowling to get an important wicket of Shane Watson and he also ran Finch out who was batting on 74 at that moment.

Jadeja played 1 test and 2 T20Is in 2016 tour of West Indies. His returns were 3/47 in test and 2 wickets from T20Is.

He played in all 3 tests against visiting New Zealand side. He performed well in the series bagging 14 wickets and scored 129 runs including one half century. India went on to win the series 3–0. Jadeja was awarded man of the match in the first game at Kanpur for his all-round display. He scored 92 runs and took 6 wickets in that game.

He featured in all four tests against the visiting Australian side.He bagged 25 wickets as well as made two handy half centuries down the order which earned him the player of the match as well as player of the series award in the latest concluded series on March 28, 2017.He is currently sitting on the top on charts in the list of best Test bowlers.

He along with Ravichandran Ashwin became the first pair of spinners to be jointly ranked number 1 bowler in ICC Test Rankings history

On August 5, 2017 Jadeja became the fastest left-arm bowler to reach 150 wickets in terms of number of Tests played (32).

Indian Premier League

Ravindra Jadeja was selected by the Rajasthan Royals for the inaugural season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) in 2008, and played an important role in their victory (Royals defeated Chennai Super Kings in the final). Jadeja scored 135 runs from 14 matches at a strike rate of 131.06, his best score being 36* against Kings XI Punjab. He did even better in 2009, scoring 295 runs at a strike rate of 110.90, and conceding fewer than 6.5 runs per over. Shane Warne, the captain of Rajasthan Royals, referred to Jadeja as a "superstar in the making". Warne also nicknamed him "Rockstar".

Jadeja sat out the 2010 IPL because of a ban arising from contractual irregularities. In 2011, he was bought by the Kochi Tuskers Kerala for $950,000. Kochi Tuskers were terminated from the IPL in September 2011, and in the 2012 IPL player auction, Jadeja was bought by Chennai Super Kings for $2 million (approx. Rs. 9.8 crore) after a tie-breaker with Deccan Chargers who bid the same amount. Jadeja was the most expensive player of the year's auction. He won the Man of the Match award in the second match of the season against Deccan Chargers for his all-round performance (48 runs off 29 balls, 5/16 in 4 overs).

Ravindra Jadeja playing for Chennai Super king had fine spin bowling performance in Chennai for an IPL 2015 Match on Mother's Day; He took four wickets for 11 runs with a brilliant spell of spin attack against Rajasthan Royals.

Media image

Sunil Gavaskar said in March 2013 that Ravindra Jadeja, along with Cheteshwar Pujara, was a role model for youngsters. Jadeja's contributions in India's 4–0 test series win over Australia in February and March 2013 were praised in the media, and Gavaskar called him one of the architects of the win. Jadeja's dominance of Clarke was also praised in the media. Jadeja was named Player of the Week by the portal Cricket World after the end of the fourth test.

Since his performance at the 2009 ICC World Twenty20 event, Jadeja has been a consistent target of sarcasm and jokes by cricket portals and Indian cricket fans. On Twitter and Facebook, he is jokingly referred to as Sir Ravindra Jadeja since an online joke calling him the same went viral. When Jadeja was out clean bowled for 16 while not offering a shot in the February 2013 Chennai test against Australia, a cricket portal described his dismissal as "Jadeja falls 284 runs short of what would have been a fourth first-class triple-century". Following his good performance against Australia in the 2013 test series, there was a flurry of Jadeja jokes on Twitter comparing him to Rajinikanth. His Wikipedia article was temporarily vandalized to mock him. In April 2013, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Suresh Raina and Ravichandran Ashwin, teammates of Jadeja in Chennai Super Kings, tweeted several Jadeja jokes on Twitter, in one of which Dhoni referred to him as Sri Sri Pandit Sir Lord Ravindra Jadeja. In response, Jadeja said in April 2013 that it was a joke which everybody was enjoying, and that he had no problem with the prefix Sir.

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