Ravindra Jadeja

Dissed when he first appeared, Ravindra Jadeja won the doubters and haters over with his deeds, and now sits among the elite of Indian spin bowling.

In October 2019 he became the quickest left-arm bowler to reach 200 Test wickets. Six years before that, he had became the first Indian since Anil Kumble in 1993 to top the ICC ODI bowling rankings. In the IPL, he drew a scarcely believable bid of US$2 million in 2012.

In an era in which he was bound to be overshadowed by the artistry of fellow spinner R Ashwin, Jadeja kept his senior colleague on his toes, and often stole the spot when conditions allowed India to play just the one spinner. It helped that he was a captain's dream: arguably the fastest man on the turf and the best fielder in the time that he played, he went on to become an important lower-order batter.

Some of his best batting performances came against the top teams, and they were often accompanied by the swordsman's celebration that became his signature. Ten years into his career, he had five Test fifties and a hundred against England - the latter in a partnership of 222 with Rishabh Pant at Edgbaston in 2022 - and four half-centuries against Australia. It was all a far cry from the memes his batting inspired at the start of his career - though the ridicule directed at his three triple-hundreds in domestic cricket back then was more an indictment of the quality of bowling on the Indian first-class circuit at the time.

Jadeja shone in India's 2013 Champions Trophy win, finishing as the leading wicket-taker, with 12 wickets, two of those in the final, where he also made an unbeaten 33.

His most valuable assets as a bowler are perhaps his fitness and strength, which enable him to go at batters for hours, ready to pounce on any assistance from the pitch. Like with his batting, his bowling highlights too feature the best sides disproportionately. His first Test five-for came against Australia in Delhi in 2013, and was followed by 6 for 138 in his next match, against South Africa in Durban, though that was in an India defeat. When South Africa next visited India, he got stuck into them, with 23 wickets in the four Tests in 2015. Against England at home in 2016-17, he harvested 26; this included an impressive demolition job in Chennai, where he took 7 for 48 after India had racked up 759 runs. Later that season he took 25 wickets when Australia visited for four Tests, to go with the 24 from the previous time, in 2013.

Through the first half of his career and beyond, Jadeja's place in the Test side was never quite secure. He had to fight through a serious shoulder injury, and he was even dropped from the squad, but he kept coming back. Of course, these hardships paled in comparison with a tough childhood in Jamnagar, and the hard knocks that marked his early career, including being banned by the IPL for a year for essentially trying to negotiate his salary. In that tournament, Jadeja has been synonymous with Chennai Super Kings, for whom he has taken over 100 wickets over nine seasons and whom he briefly captained in 2022.