Left-arm wristspin to left-arm orthodox: the <i>other</i> Jadeja finally gets it right

It's not enough that Dharmendrasinh Jadeja plays for Saurashtra, like Ravindra Jadeja does.
Or that he bowls left-arm spin - like Ravindra.
Or that he's a handy lower-order batsman - again like Ravindra.
Or that he's also the team's gun fielder and prowls at point - you guessed it, like Ravindra.

Both Ravindra Jadeja and Dharmendrasinh Jadeja's fathers also have the same name, Anirudhsinh.

"That's why people often think I'm his younger brother," the 28-year-old Dharmendrasinh tells ESPNcricinfo. "My fielding is also like his. He also fields at point and I do too. When we play together also I field at point. Because he might be between tours, or has an India tour coming up, so he stays at mid-on. We haven't played too many matches together, but when he's there he helps quite a lot. When we're bowling together, he always tells me what to bowl on which sort of pitch."

The 2018-19 Ranji Trophy season has been the younger Jadeja's annus mirabilis. He's got two of his three first-class fifties, including his highest score of 87. And he's got 50 wickets, making it his most successful season ever. That has allowed him to emerge from the shadow that Ravindra's achievements cast, but it wasn't always this way.

"Earlier, there was the insecurity that since he is an India player, if he is available for Saurashtra, I won't get to play," Dharmendrasinh says. "But now it's very nice because we both get to play, no matter what the pitch is. My fear went away because I put in good performances."

It's rare that a first-class player, whether an established one Dharmendrasinh or a rookie, make an admission of this kind. But then again, he's not quite like most.

On the third day of Saurashtra's semi-final against Karnataka at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Dharmendrasinh bowled a whopper of a first spell, one that lasted 23 overs. It spanned both lunch and tea breaks. He came on to bowl at 11.45 am, and by the time his 23rd over was bowled it was 3.45 pm.

Across that time period, he accounted for Manish Pandey, Mayank Agarwal and K Gowtham. The day might have ended with Shreyas Gopal and Abhimanyu Mithun carrying Karnataka to a lead of 276 with two wickets still remaining, but in many ways the most remarkable performance came from Dharmendrasinh.

"I'm used to this, because in Saurashtra, we get a lot of patta (flat) wickets, so I have to bowl a lot," he says. "The fast bowlers can't bowl long spells, so it comes down to me. Bowling 20-25 over spells happens often. In this match, the fast bowlers weren't getting much in the middle period and some balls were spinning, so the hope was that we could get wickets which is why I was kept at one end. I did have a cramp in my calf, but that was just because I had been bowling for 20-plus overs.

"I work a lot on my fitness in the off-season. There are a lot of facilities at our stadium itself in Saurashtra, so I go there regularly. It's 15 kms from my house. Now it's become a habit, I bowl this much every season so I don't get tired."

He's not exaggerating. In 73 innings before this match, Dharmendrasinh had bowled 1526.4 overs - or about 21 overs per innings on average.

And this from someone who confesses he enjoys hitting a cover drive more than bowling the sort of ball that got Agarwal out -drift, dip and sharp turn beating an established batsman who was set and crashing into the stumps. "The whole team also knows that when I play a cover drive, I hold that pose so that photos can be taken," he says, with a laugh. "But I'd enjoy taking a five-wicket haul more than hitting a century."

There are other ways in which Dharmendrasinh is unique. He likes to bowl almost exclusively around the stumps. He did that for large parts against Karnataka, in both innings. "I was more getting turn from that angle, and more inconsistent bounce too," he says. "I didn't need Jaydev Unadkat to bowl over the wicket from the other end because his footmarks wouldn't have helped me. They would have been a little too wide (away from the stumps) for me to target.

"You can't get too many lbws from over the wicket too. You can stop runs, but not much else. So, I prefer going around the wicket. You get the angle too from there, and you have options if it straightens, or turns. I stay around the wicket to left-hand batsmen also, though I can bowl over the wicket to them too. If there are lots of footmarks, or nothing is happening around the wicket, then I might switch to over the wicket."

It is almost pure luck that Dharmendrasinh wasn't lost to cricket as a young boy who was passionate about the game but not very good at it. Because he began life as a left-arm wristspinner.

"When I started I was a chinaman (sic) bowler," he says. "I started at 15 years old, but at 17 I changed to left-arm spin because I wasn't getting too many wickets. I decided to change on the spur of the moment, no coach told me to. Kuch nahin ho raha hai toh chalo kuch doosra karte hain (Since nothing is happening anyway, let me try something new). But it's good I changed, I'm here today because I changed!"

It's all come together for the boy from Rajkot whose family always watches him when he's playing.

"Last year too I had got 34 wickets," he says. "But we played only six matches, and didn't progress (beyond the league stage). This year there were eight matches in the league stage and we progressed further, so the wickets have come because I've played more matches.

"My most memorable moment this season was the match against Maharashtra, where I took a hat-trick too. The match was slipping out of our hands. It was a green wicket in Nasik, but I got seven wickets in an innings, so that was a good match for me."

He has delivered with the ball in the semi-final too. Given that the pitch at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium isn't the truest surface, he might still have to unfurl that cover drive if Saurashtra are to reach a third Ranji final in six years.