India all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja starred with the ball in the first ODI against England at the VCA Stadium, Nagpur on Thursday (February 6).

Jadeja’s stunning figures of 3 for 26 in 9 overs derailed the English innings after the visitors got off to a strong start. The left-arm spinner has made it a habit of being efficient in the middle overs of a 50-over match, irrespective of wickets helping him or not.

After the match, former India off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin heaped praise on Jadeja, saying that the media does not “appreciate” him much. He also called the latter a “more gifted” cricketer than himself.

“Our media fails to appreciate when a player does well. Whenever we lose, everyone becomes a villain. He dismissed Joe Root (in the 1st IND vs ENG ODI). Jadeja goes always under the radar. He is a “Jackpot Jango”. He is +10 in the field, also bowls well and bats in pressure situations as well. We don’t give Jadeja enough credit,” Ashwin said on his YouTube channel in the show Ash Ki baat.

Ashwin (765 wickets) is the second highest wicket-taker for India behind Anil Kumble (953 wickets). In the show, co-host Vimal Kumar asked Ashwin about Jadeja getting closer to him in the wickets tally.

To which, Ashwin replied by saying: “Jadeja is way more gifted than I ever can. He is a born athlete. His major advantages lie in his physical fitness. He is naturally fit. Even at this age, he can cover the entire area from long on to deep square leg while standing at mid-wicket. I wouldn’t be surprised. And I will be more than happy for him.”

Jadeja currently occupies the fifth place in the all time list with 600 scalps to his name. Kapil Dev (707 wickets) and Harbhajan Singh (697 wickets) are ahead of him in the list.

Apart from his bowling, Jadeja has also been quite a handy batter lower down the order, both in white-ball cricket and red-ball cricket. He has over 6000 runs to his name across all three formats of the game.