After a sizzling performance with both bat and ball in Mohali against Sri Lanka, which helped him elevate to the number 1 Test all-rounder position, Ravindra Jadeja will eye another major milestone in the upcoming second Test in Bangalore.
The M.Chinnaswamy Stadium will host the second Test which will be a day-night Test to be played with the pink ball, India’s only third such contest at home.
In Mohali, Ravindra Jadeja slammed his career-best score of 175* before taking out 9 Sri Lankan wickets – figures of 5/41 in the first innings followed by 4/46 in the second – with the ball, helping India to a massive innings-and-222-run win.
Now, in Bangalore Ravindra Jadeja is nearing a milestone double: the southpaw needs just 9 more wickets to complete 250 Test wickets; also, with 130 more runs, Jadeja will cross 2500 Test runs. In the second Test against a depleted Sri Lankan team, the left-hander has a great chance of completing the double of 2500 Test runs and 250 Test scalps.
Only three Indian players – Anil Kumble, R Ashwin, and Kapil Dev – have recorded the double of 2500 Test runs and 250 Test wickets, further highlighting the significance of the achievement Jadeja will make going forward.
Ravindra Jadeja becomes the number 1 Test all-rounder for the second time
This is the second time Ravindra Jadeja has become the top-ranked Test all-rounder
He was No.1 for a week in August 2017. Jadeja also moved up three places to No.17 on the bowling rankings, and from 54th to 37th on the batting charts.
Ravichandran Ashwin, who went past Kapil Dev’s tally of 434 Test wickets to become India’s second-leading Test wicket-taker, is third in the Test all-rounders rankings and second in Test bowling rankings.
Since making his Test debut, Ravindra Jadeja has been known as a bowling all-rounder. However, he has upped his batting incredibly over the past few years: in the Indian team, since the start of 2019, Jadeja’s Test batting average of 48 is only bettered by Rohit Sharma’s 57 (Washington Sundar averages 66 but in has played only 4 Tests).