In one of many rarest occurrences, each R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja have been each adjudged the gamers of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy collection following the drawn ultimate Test right here on the Narendra Modi Cricket Stadium on Monday. The duo’s mixed position in India’s 2-1 triumph could not have been emphasised sufficient.

Ashwin and Jadeja first performed collectively when the latter made his Test debut in opposition to England in December 2012 in Nagpur. It was the final match of the collection with England having fun with a 2-1 lead. The match led to a draw on a sluggish floor and England ended a 28-year watch for a Test collection win in India. Ashwin and Jadeja had shared six wickets between them equally for the match whereas conceding a mixed 282 runs in 132 overs. Alastair Cook was the participant of the collection and James Anderson the participant of the match.

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By quirk of destiny, Ashwin and Jadeja’s newest Test collectively was additionally on a equally sluggish floor the place solely two innings have been accomplished. The two claimed eight wickets between them with Ashwin accounting for seven of them. The match led to a draw once more however India received the collection. Ashwin and Jadeja have been gamers of the collection and Virat Kohli the participant of the match.

From Nagpur to Ahmedabad, the two matches are additionally symbolic of their stature as India’s trump playing cards on dwelling pitches. The two got here collectively below Dhoni, grew in energy throughout Virat Kohli’s period and proceed to be as impactful with Rohit Sharma on the helm now. The off-spin and left-arm spin mixture is having the identical affect that the irrepressible pair of Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh had in India sustaining their stranglehold at dwelling.

They are a captain’s delight.

“I don’t know honestly if they’ll be around,” stated Rohit when requested if India would hope for them to be round when the Aussies come to India subsequent 4 years down the road in 2027. For the file, Ashwin is 36 and Jadeja 34.

“I don’t know if I will be around,” continued Rohit (laughing). “Four years is a long time. Honestly, for the sake of Indian cricket, I hope they stay and play a lot of cricket. Both of them have been marathon players for us. They know how to get the job done, especially in this part of the world.

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“You give them the ball and so they get you these breakthroughs. With the bat, they get you essential runs… Where we stand at this time when it comes to how we carry out in Indian circumstances, loads of credit score goes to them. A big a part of our success belongs to these two guys. It’s not only for a interval of some years, it is over a decade now. It’s a protracted very long time to maintain performing the best way these two guys have carried out for us.”

It wasn’t a stretch by any imagination, for the numbers speak for themselves. Despite playing less number of matches together (47) than Kumble and Harbhajan (54), Ashwin and Jadeja have more wickets combined and, therefore, more Test wins to their credit. That’s not to suggest the current pair are better than their predecessors.

While Ashwin and Jadeja look superior quantitatively, the jury is still out in terms of their quality. Kumble and Harbhajan, just like the batsmen of their era, bowled on much better pitches to bat compared to the rank turners we have been seeing in the last six-seven years. With team totals coming down, both the bowling averages and strike rates have come down (see the table).

That said, the two have been wonderful servants of Indian cricket, especially in Tests, complementing each other and feeding off on each other’s success.

“It has been a great journey. We (himself and Jadeja) started a long time ago but we wouldn’t be the same or lethal enough without the other. We need to recognise that, at least I have started recognising that over the last 2-3 years,” said Ashwin after the match on Monday.

“He provides me loads of freedom to be artistic with the ball, credit score to him,” added Ashwin, and the Ahmedabad match was a classic example of it.

On a slow pitch with little turn on offer, Ashwin had to do something special. He had to try different varieties, vary the pace and lengths, change his loading position et al. The veteran spinner returned a rich haul of 6/91 on a pitch Jadeja could get just two across two innings. But without Jadeja’s frugal economy rate, Ashwin wouldn’t have got the license to be himself.

Apart from being spinners, there’s little common between the two. Ashwin is a student of the game with great attention to detail. His cricket is quite structured with knowledge drawn from watching, reading and discussing, and trying at practice. When he speaks of bowling, he enhances it to the level of science, throwing in words like trajectory, loading, wrist-cock, pivot, revs and so on.   

Jadeja is quite the opposite. He is a naturally gifted player who doesn’t like complicating his game. You will never see him talking about working on different balls or trying different techniques. Listening to him is as seamless as his game.

“Jaddu retains it actually easy, he doesn’t fret round or hassle about what has occurred,” stated Ashwin.

Also, Jadeja retains it easy as a result of he’s supremely conscious of his limitations and that understanding is his greatest energy. He was man of the match within the first two Tests which had undercooked wickets. With the Ahmedabad pitch turning out to be a flat one, he did not attempt something fancy to get into wickets’ columns. His job was to dry up the runs and he did that with aplomb.

The two are completely different characters, however there isn’t any one method to succeed. It’s Jadeja’s uncomplicated method that enhances Ashwin’s best-laid plans.