Ravindra Jadeja, the batsman: A tale of two halves
When Ravindra Jadeja came on the international scene, nobody was quite sure whether he is more of a batsman or more of a bowler. After all, he was the man with three triple hundreds in first-class cricket and a bowler who repeatedly delivered with the ball during the IPL.
Some experts were hell-bent on giving the credit of Jadeja's triple hundreds to the pitch of his home ground, Rajkot, but, even on the flattest of pitches, loads of patience and discipline is required to score a triple hundred and Jadeja scored three.
The man with three triple hundreds as he was often called during the initial days of his career found the going difficult as a batsman in international cricket. At the same time, as a bowler, he was doing better than expected. He formed a lethal partnership with Ashwin as a bowler, both kept running through the sides match after match and are still doing so on Indian pitches.
Jadeja the batsman left a lot to be desired and got a tag of an underperformer. He did not put a high price on his wicket and was often found throwing away his wicket. Maybe he started to think like a bowler, someone whose main job is to take wickets and if he can get some runs its fine otherwise no need to break a sweat.
This was the tale of the first half for Jadeja the batsman, During the period from 2012 to 2015, he scored 473 runs from 24 Test innings at an average of 21.5 with just one score above 50.
But, the tale of the second half is very different for Jadeja the batsman, suddenly, it appeared that Jadeja has found his feet in international cricket, he became resilient with the bat, started making runs consistently and played few match-winning knocks as well. During 2016-2018 (till date), Jadeja has scored 809 runs from 30 Test innings at an average of 42.5 with 8 scores above 50, which is an amazing turnaround.
Jadeja's success as a batsman is not a case of scoring runs because he is playing in home conditions, three of his eight fifties during 2016-2018 (till date) came outside India.
Technically Jadeja remains the same. One reason for this newfound success as a batsman seems to be the fact that he is putting a high price on his wicket and wants to make amends for opportunities lost earlier.
It will be too early to call this batting success as a discovery of an all-rounder that this Indian team is desperately seeking, but, if Jadeja can continue like this for another 10 or 12 Tests, then it won't be unfair to call the man with three triple hundreds as an all-rounder.