There’s nothing particularly spectacular about Indian spinner Ravindra Jadeja.
The left-arm tweaker doesn’t possess an assortment of mystery deliveries, serving as Ravichandran Ashwin’s accomplice for most of his Test career. He doesn’t dramatically turn the ball either.
Yet, of the 13 left-arm spinners with at least 150 Test wickets, Jadeja’s career average of 24.40 is the lowest. He particularly enjoys bowling to Australians — since 1900, no cricketer has taken more Test wickets against Australia at a lower average than Jadeja (18.16).
Jadeja was the leading wicket-taker of the 2017 Border-Gavaskar Trophy, Australia’s most recent Test tour of India, named Player of the Series after taking 25 wickets and scoring two fifties in four matches.
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The 35-year-old was at the peak of his powers on day one of the Nagpur Test, claiming 5-47 in a damaging 22-over spell to help roll the Australians for 177.
Jadeja, playing his first Test match in nearly eight months after recovering from knee surgery, was relentlessly accurate on Thursday, bowling a stump-to-stump line and rarely straying down the leg side or overpitching.
The genius behind Jadeja’s magic is his subtle variations — the crafty, unassuming tweaker changes his release angle, speed and seam position to continually threaten both edges of the bat.
Perhaps his most effective strategy is using the crease to manipulate angles, occasionally coming wider and bowling with a slightly more round-arm action.
The Nagpur pitch undeniably favoured spin, but it was far from a raging turner on day one — Jadeja wasn’t relying on assistance from the wicket to bamboozle Australia’s middle order.
“I loved the rhythm with which I bowled, and the ball came out of my hand quite well. Line and length was also accurate, since there is no bounce off the track,” Jadeja told reporters at stumps.
“I preferred bowling stump-to-stump. On a low-bounce track, there are more chances of leg before and bowled, and luckily, I got a few leg-before and bowled, so that makes me happy.”
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Jadeja removed Marnus Labuschagne, the world’s No. 1 Test batter, by dropping slightly shorter and adjusting his seam position from the previous delivery. The Australian No. 3 shuffled down the pitch and was beaten on the outside edge, with Indian wicketkeeper KS Bharat whipping off the bails to secure his maiden Test wicket.
“I was using the crease because not every ball was turning, and there wasn’t that much bounce in the wicket. So just to create some doubt in the batsman’s mind I went wide of the crease, and every now and then close to the stumps,” Jadeja explained.
“I was mixing it up, and if they step out and the ball turns, a chance could be created, and luckily that’s what happened — (Labuschagne) stepped out and that ball happened to turn.”
Jadeja’s other major scalp of the day was Steve Smith, the only member of Australia’s squad with a Test century in India. After getting a delivery to turn and find a thick outside edge, Jadeja’s next ball held its line — Smith played for turn, with the ball squeezing between bat and pad.
“From the same spot the ball went straight to Smith,” Jadeja said.
“So the natural variation happened, but I kept trying to mix up the angles to create doubt in the batsman’s mind.
“Some balls were turning, and (Labuschagne and Smith) were searching for runs.
“It wasn’t easy to score singles and keep rotating strike. If you kept bowling in good areas, the batsmen will look to try something different — these two are busy batsmen, they look to score runs.
“When their partnership got going, I felt I had to bowl as many dot balls as possible, because there wasn’t a lot of help from the wicket — it wasn’t spinning consistently. I just looked to bowl on a good line and length.”
Jadeja is quickly approaching 250 Test wickets, a milestone he could pass in the second innings unless Australia’s batters learn to watch the ball.
