When you think of Jaddu, the first word that comes to your mind is, fighter.
Along with Rohit, I'd say Jaddu is the ones who has faced the most ups and downs in his career amongst the core bunch today.
His breakthrough year was 2013 (Rohit says hello), with a brilliant Border Gavaskar home series followed by a brilliant Champions Trophy. He continued to be brilliant, brilliant, and more brilliant--world's best fielder, world's best limited overs spinner, and a handy and priceless batsman through and through, along 2014.
Before the 2015 World Cup, he had an injury scare and I was paralyzed. India win without Jadeja? After 2013 and 14, the very thought was unimaginable.
However, he disappointed us dearly in that World Cup, and after that he's had to play in-out of the Indian team for two years.
In 2017, he and Ash aced another home BG Trophy (home BG Trophies are totally their thing, you know?) and they jointly topped bowlers' rankings in Tests, but after Champions Trophy 2017, our spin duo was dropped from limited overs. Time to move on from finger spinners, they said, maybe not illogically (didn't stop me from hating Kuldeep who took Jaddu's place though, KKR/good player or not).
2019 was the rebirth of Jadeja in ODIs. After the freak match against England where Kuldeep Yuzi failed to break the middle order partnership, Kuldeep became the scapegoat. Out he went, and in Jaddu came, just in time for the highlight of his career, in batting, of course:
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This match. You can never shed enough tears over it.
After that Jaddu has been a regular in all three formats comfortably. He had a pivotal role in our iconic Border Gavaskar victory in 2021, and remember? He was padded up to bat with a broken thumb.
Sir Ravindra Jadeja is a fighter through and through, and I love him so much for it.
After 2019, just like Rohit, he deserves a World Cup, too.
