With a career-best, unbeaten 175, five wickets in the first innings and four in the second, Ravindra Jadeja’s name was all over the scorecard in Mohali, making it, statistically, one of the standout individual performances in Test history.

In August 2018, one of ESPNcricinfo’s ’25 questions’ to Ravindra Jadeja was the one cricketing record he’d like to have at the end of his career. “A hundred and a five-wicket haul in the same innings,” Jadeja promptly replied. On Sunday, in Mohali, Jadeja realised his dream in an emphatic fashion. And he’s clearly far from his end.

Ever since he answered that question during India’s 2018 England tour with tremendous self-assurance splashed all over his face, Jadeja has been on a different plane in Test cricket: in 2020, he was rated India’s Test MVP of the 21st century by CricViz, and for good reason. Since the beginning of 2018, he averages 47.76 with the bat, and 25.46 with the ball.

The second and third day of the Mohali Test had Jadeja splashed all over the scorecard and highlight packages. Walking in with the team at 228-5, Jadeja combined with R Ashwin to dismantle Sri Lanka’s attack. By the time Rohit Sharma waved his arms in declaration 68 overs later, Jadeja had cruised along to his highest Test score, remaining unbeaten 25 runs shy of a double-ton. In the 21st century, only Adam Gilchrist (in 2002) and Brendon McCullum (2010) have hit 175 or more from No.7 in a Test innings. Until that 2018 England tour, Jadeja had nine fifties in 37 Tests. He’s added two centuries and eight fifties in 21 Tests since. No other India No.7 in Test history has made as many as 175* in an innings.

It wasn’t enough for Jadeja, though, who then proceeded to run through the visitors with a clinical five-wicket haul, masterfully utilising the conditions on offer. By the time he was walking back with No.11 Lahiru Kumara’s scalp, Jadeja had completed a gargantuan achievement in the format: only four players have a 175+ score and taken a five-wicket haul in the same Test.

The context of the game perhaps takes some sheen off the performance, with India going into the game as heavy favourites and coming out as thumping winners, but Jadeja’s numbers were extraordinary and defy any questioning. With four more wickets in the second innings, he became the first player to hit a 150+ score and claim a nine-wicket haul in the same game, eclipsing Garry Sobers’ combined tally (174 runs, eight wickets) from the 1966 Leeds Test.

Another wicket would have made Jadeja the first player to hit 150+ and pick 10 wickets in the same Test: in fact, only three – Shakib Al Hasan, Imran Khan and Ian Botham – have managed the double of 10 wickets and a century in a single Test. Botham deserves singling out as the only player to hit a century and take 13 wickets (1980 Mumbai Test). A special mention to Alan Davidson, who aggregated 124 runs (44 & 80), while taking 11 wickets in the tied 1960 Brisbane Test against West Indies.

Jadeja’s bumper performance landed him the Player of the Match award for the third consecutive time in Mohali (2015, 2016 & 2022). Along the way, he also became the second Indian, after Kapil Dev, to complete the double of 5,000 runs and 400 wickets in international cricket. His numbers, with bat and ball, now compare favourably to any player in the game’s history. He now averages 36.46 with the bat and 24.28 with the ball, sitting alongside Imran Khan and Keith Miller among a trio of players to average above 35 with the bat and below 25 with the ball. The difference between his batting and bowling averages, often taken as a measure of an all-rounder’s quality, now sits at a lofty 12.17. Among all-rounders with at least 100 wickets, it’s a number bettered by only four in the game’s history, with Jacques Kallis and Sobers joining Miller and Imran.

It was Rohit Sharma’s first Test as captain, Virat Kohli’s 100th Test and Sri Lanka’s 300th Test, but just like Ian’s Botham’s 1981 Headingley Test, the Mohali game will forever be remembered as the ‘Jadeja Test’.

 

Related tags:

IndiaSri Lanka Ravindra JadejaSeries Editorial