In August 2015, India landed in Sri Lanka for a Test series that marked the start of something new. It was Virat Kohli’s first full series as India’s Test captain. MS Dhoni had retired from Test cricket only a few months before that tour. Names like Ajinkya Rahane, Cheteshwar Pujara, R Ashwin, and Rohit Sharma were seen as the players who would carry Indian cricket forward for the next several years.
One player from that group was missing on that tour. Ravindra Jadeja did not travel with the team to Sri Lanka in 2015. He returned to the Test side a few months later, in the home series against South Africa.
Now fast forward to 2026. India are back in Sri Lanka once again, and the team is going through change once more. But this time, almost everyone from that 2015 dressing room is gone. Ashwin retired in 2024. Rohit and Kohli both stepped away from Test cricket in May 2025. Pujara followed a few months after that. And Rahane, the latest of them all, has now also walked away from the game.
Out of that entire group, only one man is still around. Ravindra Jadeja is still playing for India.
Still Standing After More Than Ten Years
It is rare for any cricketer to stay at the top for this long. Careers rise and fall all the time. Players lose form, get injured, or simply get replaced by younger talent coming through the ranks. Yet Jadeja has managed to remain part of the Indian Test team for well over a decade, even as every other player from his generation has moved on.
Saurashtra head coach Niraj Odedra, who has watched Jadeja grow since his early years, explained what makes him so hard to replace. “The most important thing is that he’s a multidimensional player. He’ll get you wickets, he’ll bat wherever you send him, No. 4, No. 6, No. 7 or No. 8, and he’ll still score runs. Then, in the field, he’ll produce a run-out or a catch that very few others can. He’s a complete all-rounder. That’s what makes him different from any other cricketer,” Odedra told The Indian Express.
This wide range of skills is a big reason why Jadeja has stayed useful to the team, no matter what the situation calls for. He can bowl long, tiring spells. He can bat at almost any position in the order. And he can save runs and take sharp catches in the field. Very few cricketers in the world can do all three of these things well at the same time.
From Bowler To All-Round Batter
When Jadeja returned to the Indian Test team in late 2015, most people only saw him as a left-arm spin bowler. He built his early name on tricky, turning pitches, like the one in Mohali against South Africa, and also on flat, slow pitches, like the one in Chennai against England in 2016. On both kinds of surfaces, he bowled with tight control and kept picking up wickets.
But slowly, something else started to grow. His batting technique got better. He learned to pick the right shots at the right time. And he became calmer and steadier at the crease, especially in the longer format of the game.
The real turning point came in 2018, when he scored his first Test century, against West Indies in Rajkot. Around the same period, he also smashed a career-best 175 not out against Sri Lanka in Mohali. This was not just a one-off knock. In 2022, he scored a hundred at Edgbaston in England, at a point when India had slipped to 98 for 5 in that innings. Three years after that, in 2025, he piled up 516 runs across a five-match Test series in England. By then, there was no doubt left that his batting belonged at the very top level of the game.
Even now, the team leans on him with the bat whenever needed. During a recent warm-up match against a Sri Lanka Cricket XI, Shubman Gill could not bat in the first innings. So Jadeja was sent in at No. 4, a spot that is not usually his. He responded with 63 runs off 117 balls.
The Mindset Behind The Change
According to coach Odedra, Jadeja’s biggest change was not really about technique at all. It was about how he saw himself as a player.
“Himself. Nobody else. The biggest change was his mindset. He had to believe that he wasn’t just somebody who could bowl, but a player who could bat as well. He backed himself to such an extent that that’s what made him a better batsman,” Odedra said.
Odedra also pointed out that this batting talent was there from a very young age, even if most people did not notice it. “People have this perception that he’s a bowler who can only bowl. But from a very young age, Under-16, Under-19, he always was a very good batsman. When he started playing for the Indian team, he realised that if he didn’t score runs, if he didn’t become a multidimensional player, then he wouldn’t last long like others.”
In simple words, Jadeja understood early on that being only a bowler would not be enough to survive at the top level for very long. So he worked hard on becoming a player who could add value in every part of the game, not just one.
A Painful Start In Life
Long before any of this cricketing success, Jadeja faced one of the toughest moments a teenager can go through. In 2005, when he was just sixteen years old, his mother died from burns caused by a kitchen fire. He was not even at home when the accident took place.
After this loss, Jadeja wanted to give up cricket completely. But one thought kept him going. His mother had not raised him to become a cricketer, only for him to walk away from it.
His father had also given him some important advice years earlier, back when Jadeja did not even know that cricket would one day become his career. “When I started playing cricket, my father gave me very important advice. At that point, I didn’t even know that I will be playing cricket seriously, forget playing for the country. He told me it’s your performance on the ground that matters,” Jadeja said in an interview with The Indian Express in 2023.
His father had put it simply, in Hindi: “Ground mein perform karo, bus baat khatam.” In simple words, this means, perform well on the field, and there is nothing left to say after that.
Bouncing Back Again And Again
Jadeja’s career has seen many setbacks, but he has found a way to return from each one of them.
In 2018, during India’s tour of England, he was left out of the team for the first four Tests. A situation like this can easily break a player’s confidence. But when he finally got his chance in the fifth Test, at The Oval, he made the most of it. He scored an unbeaten 86 with the bat and picked up seven wickets with the ball in that match.
“That Test changed everything for me. Poora, complete, game. My performance, my confidence, everything. When you score in English conditions against the best bowling attack, it greatly impacts your confidence,” Jadeja told The Indian Express in 2021.
After that, the injuries kept coming, one after the other. He fractured his thumb during the tour of Australia in 2020-21. Then came a forearm injury, followed by a bruised rib. In the 2022 Asia Cup, he suffered a serious knee injury. In 2024, he had a hamstring problem. And during this year’s IPL, tennis elbow troubled him.
Any one of these injuries could have slowed him down for good, or pushed him toward retirement. But every single time, he recovered and made his way back onto the field.
While all of this was happening around him, the players from that 2015 generation slowly stepped away from the game, one after another. Time eventually caught up with everyone else in that dressing room.
Everyone, except Jadeja.
Jadeja’s Five Best Performances
Over the years, Jadeja has produced several great performances with both bat and ball. Here are five of the best.
India vs South Africa, Mohali 2015
Scores: 38 and 8 runs, with match figures of 8 wickets for 76 runs.
On his return to Test cricket after more than a year away, Jadeja picked up 8 wickets for 76 runs across the match, including 5 wickets for 21 runs in the second innings. His bowling helped India defend a total of 217 runs and win the game. He was named Player of the Match for this effort.
India vs England, Chennai 2016
Scores: 51 runs, with match figures of 10 wickets for 154 runs.
In this game, Jadeja showed his all-round skills with a half-century and 10 wickets across the match, including 7 wickets for 48 runs in the second innings. His performance helped India win the match with room to spare.
India vs Australia, Nagpur 2023
Scores: 70 runs and match figures of 7 wickets for 81 runs.
Coming back after knee surgery, Jadeja picked up 7 wickets for 81 runs and also scored 70 runs with the bat. This all-round effort earned him the Player of the Match award, as India went on to win by an innings and 132 runs.
India vs Bangladesh, Chennai 2024
Scores: 86 runs and match figures of 5 wickets for 77 runs.
Jadeja scored 86 runs in this match, including a 199-run partnership for the seventh wicket with R Ashwin. That partnership pulled India out of trouble after the team had slipped to 144 for 6. He then picked up 5 wickets for 77 runs across the match, helping India win by 280 runs.
India vs England, Manchester 2025
Scores: 20 and 107 runs, with match figures of 4 wickets for 143 runs.
Jadeja picked up 4 wickets for 143 runs before scoring an unbeaten 107 with the bat. He shared a 203-run partnership for the fifth wicket with Washington Sundar, which helped India survive the final day of the match and end it in a draw.
A Career Built On Coming Back
Looking back at Jadeja’s journey, one thing stands out again and again. He always finds a way back after a hard moment. Whether it was being left out of the team, dealing with personal loss, or recovering from one injury after another, he returned to the field every single time.
He started out as a young spin bowler who could turn the ball sharply on Indian pitches. Over time, he grew into a batter who can also build long partnerships in tough conditions. His coach’s words sum it up in a simple way. He does not just bowl, and he does not just bat. He does whatever the team needs from him, in whichever position he is asked to play, whether that is at No. 4 or No. 8, with the bat or with the ball.
More than ten years after that first Sri Lanka tour in 2015, the players who once formed that Indian Test team have all retired from the game. Dhoni, Ashwin, Rohit, Kohli, Pujara, and now Rahane are all gone. Ravindra Jadeja is still there, still walking out to bat, still running in to bowl, still diving in the field, whenever his team needs him.
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