Ravindra Jadeja may have made his India limited-overs debut in 2009, he had to wait till 2012 for his Test debut and since then, barring a few periods of time, the left-arm all-rounder has been an asset to the Indian team.
That is why Wisden named Ravindra Jadeja as India’s ‘Most Valuable Test Player’ of the 21st century. Wisden used CricViz, a detailed analysis tool in cricket, devised an ‘MVP rating’ using a statistical model to rank player’s ‘match impact’ and the analysis found Jadeja to be the most valuable Indian player of the 21st century.
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With an MVP rating of 97.3, Jadeja is in fact, the second most valuable Test player of the 21st century, in the whole world, behind Sri Lanka’s Muttiah Muralitharan.
In 2019 as an all-rounder, as picking 21 wickets with the ball aside, the Saurashtra-born cricketer also averaged a remarkable 62.50 with the bat. In 49 Tests, Jadeja has 1869 runs and 213 wickets to his name. He has one century and 14 fifties to his name at an average of 35.26. His best bowling figures are 7/48 in an innings and 10/154 in a match.
“It might come as a surprise to see Ravindra Jadeja, India’s spin-bowling all-rounder, feature as India’s number one. After all, he’s not even always an automatic pick in their Test team. However, when he does play he is picked as a frontline bowler and has batted as high as No.6 – contributing to a very high match involvement,” Cricviz’s Freddie Wilde told Wisden.
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“The 31-year-old’s bowling average of 24.62 is better than Shane Warne’s and his batting average of 35.26 is better than Shane Watson’s. His batting and bowling average differential of 10.62 runs is the second-best of any player this century to have scored more than 1,000 runs and taken 150 wickets. He is an all-rounder of the very highest quality,” Wilde elaborated.
Ravindra Jadeja is easily the top picks whenever India plays a Test match anywhere in the world, given his increased prowess with the bat, and the tag of India’s ‘Most Valuable Test Player’ will only enhance his reputation.
(Wisden inputs)
