The Unheard Struggle Story Of Ravindra Jadeja: His mother, Lataben, was the chief bread earner of the family with her job as a nurse in a government hospital. His father, Anirudhsinh, tried his hands at a number of jobs, including a watchman, with no fixed or regular income. His two sisters, Naina and Padmini, did their best to make ends meet.
He was born in December 1988 in a family that had to think of their dire financial situation almost everyday. His mother and sisters encouraged him to stay outside and play cricket; it was their way of ensuring the boy escaped from facing the difficulties at home. His mother passed away when he was 17.
He was bullied by elder kids around him; didn’t get the chance to bat most of the time as he didn’t have a rupee to contribute.
Ravindrasinh Jadeja is now the country’s number one all-rounder. He is one of the first names on the team sheet – any format, all conditions.
Ravindra faced difficulties most of us have only seen people face and couldn’t imagine going through it.
Born in a Rajput family in Navagam Ghed, Gujarat, Anirudhsinh and his family lived in a small house that was run mainly by the income of his mother, who also had to face the questions and insults of society as a working woman in the Jadeja family – especially in those days. But she continued, while also raising her three kids, with Ravindra Jadeja being the youngest.
The introduction of Mahendrasinh Chauhan, a policeman by profession who was also a small-time cricketer, in Ravindra’s life was a turning step into his cricketing career aged 10 when he joined the ‘Cricket Bungalow’, a government-funded cricket centre in Jamnagar. Mahendrasinh gave Jadeja the chance to bat and taught him spin bowling, although the young left-armer wanted to be a pacer.
Jadeja was given the option of either getting selected at the Cricket Bungalow or being sent away to an army school. Managing to get selected, he started off as a fast bowler and later switched to a left-arm spin on the instructions of Chauhan.
A famous story goes around that Chauhan had once slapped Ravindra Jadeja in the middle of everyone when the bowler was being expensive. Jadeja went on to pick a five-wicket haul after that.
At the age of 16, Jadeja made his debut in Under-19 cricket for India in 2005. He soon made his first-class debut in the 2006 Duleep Trophy, where he played for West Zone. The Saurashtra boy then was named the vice-captain of the Indian team that won the 2008 Under-19 Cricket World Cup under Virat Kohli. An IPL contract by Rajasthan Royals came his way, and Jadeja had a steep rise after that.
In 2009, he made his ODI and T20I debut for India. In 2012, at the age of 23, Jadeja entered record books when he became only the eighth batsman in the history of cricket, and the first Indian, to make three triple hundreds in first-class cricket. He would go on to carve a Test career, starting as a bowling all-rounder and then has now become a proper all-rounder.
The boy who was nicknamed ‘Sir’ more used in a mocking tone earlier, is now arguably the best all-rounder in the world.
