There was a wholesome feeling in the end as Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja embraced each other in a tight hug. Having begun the job with the bat, with India in a precarious position on the opening day, they completed the job on Sunday morning with the ball, and the walk back to the pavilion felt more like the beginning of their final stretch of a career that came together in 2012.
Ashwin is 38, and Jadeja will be 36 soon, but through the course of this Test both showed why they will continue to remain India’s most valued players, especially at home not just in the ongoing WTC cycle, but also in the one to follow next June.
On Day 1 of this Test, with the Bangladesh attack asking all sorts of questions, it was Ashwin and Jadeja who provided India with all the answers. On Sunday, having taken the field needing six Bangladesh wickets to take a 1-0 series lead, India had toiled one hour without coming close to breaking the stand between Najmul Hossain Shanto and Shakib Al Hasan.
But once the two came on to bowl in tandem in the first over after the drinks break, they took only 48 minutes to remove the remaining 6 wickets and give another thumping victory at home, this time with a 280-run margin as India look set to extend their world record tally of consecutive Test series wins at home to 18.
India’s Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja during the first day of the first test cricket match between India and Bangladesh, at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, in Chennai, Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024. (PTI Photo)
India last lost a home series back in 2012, against England – just when the two were starting to combine at home. Indian spinners have always been pivotal to home Test wins, but Ashwin-Jadeja have lost only 3 out of 45 Tests (winning 34 or 75%) played together in India. While even in their pomp, Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh were part of 6 losses out of 34 (winning 14 Tests or 41%) at home.
In Test cricket’s rich legacy, the game has seen inseparable pairs in bowling and batting, but not two all-rounders hunt in packs with wickets as well as score valuable runs in the lower middle-order. Not since the days of Australia’s Ray Lindwall and Keith Miller in the years after World War II has Test cricket seen a pair of all-rounders simultaneously torment oppositions at the consistency at which Ashwin and Jadeja have, in Tests, especially at home.
Except for the previous home series against Bangladesh in 2019, there isn’t a Test series where they haven’t left an imprint. In the last few years, on challenging spin pitches at home, whenever the batsmen have struggled, it is Jadeja and Ashwin who have been their face-saving grace.
From the time the two managed to find a spot in the XI at home Tests together, Ashwin and Jadeja have played 45 matches together and have 263 and 218 wickets respectively. In those, with the bat Jadeja has 1910 runs, with only Virat Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara above him. Ashwin has 1141 runs which is more than what KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Shikhar Dhawan have scored. In terms of centuries at home, Ashwin has scored more at home than Dhawan and Rahul and has as many as Rahane. From MS Dhoni to Virat Kohli to Rohit Sharma, they have been the go-to personnel in crisis with bat and ball.
In India’s star cast the two may be behind Kohli, Rohit and Jasprit Bumrah, but they have been the most effective performers. It is what even prompted head coach Gautam Gambhir to downplay the absence of a seam-bowling all-rounder. Having been competitors of sorts, they are at a stage where they are growing in each other’s company. From the time they broke into the Test set-up, it has been a case of Ashwin vs Jadeja. At home, they have found a way to co-exist with their multifaceted skillset, complimenting each other with both bat and ball. And most importantly, it is this spin duo that has made India such a difficult place to win Test matches.
But as Ashwin admitted on Sunday, it has become more of a mutual admiration society. “I envy him. I am jealous of him but totally admire him. I have learnt to admire him for the last 4-5 years, even more than I have in the past. Sometimes, when you are in the race along with your co-cricketers – you are in a race – you compete, you are ambitious, you want to get ahead of one another even inside a team. It’s like brothers going in arms. And then you slowly start admiring one another. That admiration has gone one step higher, knowing that I can never beat Jadeja. I am comfortable in my skin but totally inspired by what he has done,” Ashwin said on Sunday after collecting his 10th Man of the Match performance that puts him on par with his idol Anil Kumble.
Although the margin of wins would point out to another one-sided affair, Ashwin and Jadeja had to toil hard to earn the wickets in the second innings. But with rough patches to work on, they knew they had the tricks to make the most out of the conditions. In the end, their relentless approach meant, beyond a point Bangladesh could hardly manage to fight any longer. Shakib perished while trying to defend Ashwin with a straight face of the bat. From the moment Liton Das arrived, it felt inevitable that Jadeja would have him and he did.
Spinners Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja. (FILE Photo)
And as Jadeja held on to a comfortable catch at long-on to dismiss Mehidy Hasan Miraz it gave Ashwin his 37th five-wicket haul that put him on par with Shane Warne before Jadeja closed out the game. Back in 2012 when they first played a Test together – in the series against England, which was India’s last series defeat at home – there were questions if both were the right ones to carry forward the country’s proud spin tradition. And 12 years later, such is the legacy they have created with bat and ball that the selectors are on the look out for players who can not just spin the ball, but also score those valuable runs.
