While Kumble was a leggie and Jadeja a left arm spinner, there are similarities in how they approach their games. Jadeja, just like Kumble, pitches faster in the air, giving hitters much less time to read it off the pitch.
“The precision that Jadeja has also has shades of Kumble in him. Just like my legendary colleague, Jadeja has the ability to hit the right areas throughout the day, without giving away anything to the batsmen,” former Indian left arm spinner Venkatapathy Raju told TOI.
Elaborating on the point, the left arm who had 93 Test wickets, said: ‘If you keep hitting the right areas at that pace, batsmen often start to lose it in their minds. The Australian batsmen had it on Sunday and they didn’t get an answer,” Raju said.
“Jadeja used to go wicket wide before and her action was a bit too round. He now he approaches the wicket and always attacks the stumps. And the pace at which he bowls, it’s a mistake to just bet on the sweep that the Aussies felt,” added Raju.
There is another similarity between Kumble and Jadeja – they both started out as restrictive options best suited for limited cricket but have risen to superstardom in the longer run. Jadeja made his test debut in 2012 at Nagpur against England but MS Dhoni, in subsequent away series, used him as a restrictive spinner whom he could beat.
It was against England at home in 2016 when Jadeja started to show her devastating self in Test cricket. A spell she cast in the Fifth Test to take 7-48 in Chennai after a deluge of runs showed the world that the Saurashtra spinner would be a force to be reckoned with in red ball cricket too.
Over time, DRS also came into play, and in the last five years, pad gaming has gone completely out the window.
“It made Jadeja even deadlier… Previously, hitters could get away with paddling to the forefoot, but that’s gone now. And it is true that batsmen are growing up thinking about T20 cricket and their defensive technique is sometimes not the best,” added Raju.
For her magnificent all-round performance, including a brilliant 7⃣-wicket haul, @imjadeja is awarded the player of th… https://t.co/S6PQ6amWft
—BCCI (@BCCI) 1676796783000
Add to that Jadeja’s hunger to make it count in all formats. She’s super fit, understands her body well, and has the ability to be simple. “Simple action, great wrist position and a tidy mind – it’s a fantastic recipe that has helped him to 259 wickets in just 62 Tests and he still has a long way to go,” said Raju.
