Ravindra Jadeja never lost belief despite being irregular in side, says Sourav Ganguly

Ravindra Jadeja is not a regular in India’s playing XI despite playing international cricket for over a decade now. But despite his appearance in the national team on and off, the left-arm cricketer has not lost his edge and delivers whenever he has the opportunity.

The cricketing fraternity witnessed it during the ICC World Cup when he almost took India to the finals. And last week, he showed in the first Test against the Windies in Antigua that he indeed is an all-rounder. The left-hander came out to bat with India in a spot of bother in the first innings but played a solid knock of 58 at No.8 to take his team to a respectable total.

Former India captain Sourav Ganguly lauded Ravindra Jadeja for his performance as well. In a column that he penned for the Times of India, the 47-year-old said Jadeja had never lost the belief in himself despite being in and out of the side, be it in the ODIs or Tests.

“One must also mention the efforts of Ravindra Jadeja. He didn’t lose belief even though he hasn’t been a regular in the side lately — be it in ODIs or Tests. He came out and played a terrific knock in the World Cup semi-final and in the first Test too, he delivered when India really needed it,” Ganguly wrote.

Jadeja lost his  regular place after the arrival of Kul-Cha pair

Ravindra Jadeja, who made his international debut in 2009, has played in 42 Tests and T20Is each to go with 156 ODIs, scoring 3807 runs and taking over 400 wickets. He was once a regular in the playing XI till the arrival of the spin duo of Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav. In the first Test against the Windies though, Jadeja pipped the more experienced Ravichandran Ashwin and the out-of-form Kuldeep to make it to the XI.

Ganguly also praised other top performers in the Test match, including Ajinkya Rahane with the bat and Ishant Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami with the ball. Despite facing trouble earlier in the first innings, India did well to turn the tables around and hammer the hosts by a massive margin of 318 runs.

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