Ravindra Jadeja

Some Lesser Known Facts About Ravindra Jadeja

• He hails from a middle-class family, his father used to work as a watchman for a private security agency.

• His father wanted him to become an Army officer but his interest was in Cricket, he was scared of his father in his childhood. It was his mother who supported him to pursue a career in cricket.

  

• Jadeja was about to quit cricket after his mother’s death.

• In 2005, Jadeja made his first India U19 appearance when he was 16 years old.

• His mother passed away in an accident in 2006 when Jadeja was 17 years old, which made him so weak that he once decided to quit cricket.

• Jadeja’s first-class debut came in the 2006–07 Duleep Trophy for West Zone.

• He owns a posh restaurant in Gujarat’s Rajkot named “Jaddu’s Food Field.”

• Jadeja is among the very few Indian players to have played two U-19 World Cups. He was a part of the 2006 Indian U19 squad which reached till finals. However, in 2008, Ravindra Jadeja won the ICC U19 World Cup under the captaincy of Virat Kohli.

• The nickname ‘Rockstar” was given to Jadeja by Shane Warne during his stay with Rajasthan Royals.

• Jadeja was the vice-captain of the Indian cricket team which won the Under-19 Cricket World Cup in 2008; he took 10 wickets in six matches at an average of 13.60.

• He is a very religious person.

• Jadeja received a call from the BCCI after his outstanding all-round performance in the 2008-09 Ranji Trophy, where he picked 42 wickets and scored 739 runs.

• Jadeja remained not out on 60 runs in the ODI match against Sri Lanka on his international debut in February 2009.

• Despite having 3 triple centuries in first-class cricket, it took Jadeja 56 innings to score his maiden century in test cricket.

• At 23, Jadeja made the record of scoring three first-class triple-centuries in his career. His first came against Orissa in November 2011 (314 off 375 balls), second, came against Gujarat in November 2012 (303 not out), and third came against Railways in December 2012 (331 runs off 501 balls).

• The Chennai Super Kings bought Jadeja for $2 million at the 2012 IPL Players Auction.

• In 2013, Jadeja was ranked as the No. 1 bowler in the ODI format, the first Indian to achieve the feat since Anil Kumble in 1996. In 2021, he was ranked at the top of the ICC Top 10 Test all-rounders standings.

• In 2013, Jadeja was the highest wicket-taker of the tournament with 12 wickets and played a crucial role in India’s winning the ICC Champions Trophy. He also took 2 wickets and stayed not out on 33 runs in the final match of the tournament against England.

• Jadeja is very passionate about horses and has 2 horses Ganga and Kesar at his farmhouse in Jamnagar.

• The Gujarat Lions bought Jadeja for Rs. 9.5 crores in the 2016 IPL Players Auction after the Chennai Super Kings were banned from the IPL for two seasons.

• On 22 January 2017, Jadeja became the first Indian left-arm spinner to take 150 One Day International wickets, when he dismissed Sam Billings at Eden Gardens, Kolkata.

• Jadeja is the fastest left-arm bowler to take 150 test wickets in 32 matches.

• Jadeja turned heads with his batting performance in the 2019 World Cup semi-finals against New Zealand where he scored 77 runs off 59 balls while chasing the target of 240 runs. However, India lost the match but Jadeja received much praise from the fans for his performance.

• On 15 April 2019, Jadeja announced his support for the BJP through a tweet in which he tagged his wife and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

  

• Jadeja is regarded as one of the best all-rounders of his generation, and in 2021, he became the fifth-fastest player to score 2,000 runs and take 200 wickets in Test cricket.

• On 5 March 2022, Jadeja broke Kapil Dev’s 35-year-old record of registering the highest score by a player batting in the number seven position or lower in Test cricket with his innings of 175 not out against Sri Lanka. Jadeja finished the match with bowling figures of 9 for 87 and helped India win the match by an innings and 222 runs.

• Jadeja scored his maiden overseas century in a test match against England in 2022.

• Jadeja was announced as captain of the Chennai Super Kings IPL franchise, for the 2022 IPL season, succeeding MS Dhoni. However, he later stepped down in the middle of the season.

• Jadeja is also an expert in sword fencing, which he often shows as his trademark celebration reflected after scoring a century or so.

• In March 2023, Jadeja became the fastest Indian cricketer to score 2,500 runs and take 250 wickets in test cricket.

• Ravindra Jadeja was nominated for the ICC Men’s Cricketer of the Year 2023 award.

• In 2024, his father revealed that he had not seen Ravindra and his grandchildren for five years. He blamed Ravindra’s wife, Rivaba, for causing a rift in the family and estrangement between them. ^[5]India Today

• Ravindra later tweeted about his father’s claims against Rivaba and called his interview “scripted.” Rivaba, on the other hand, got angry when asked about the situation in an interview. ^[6]Hindustan Times

• Jadeja was part of the Indian men’s cricket team squad which won the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup in June 2024. He later announced his retirement from the T20Is along with Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli.

• In August 2024, Ravindra Jadeja was selected to play in the Duleep Trophy by the BCCI before the test series with Bangladesh. He was chosen alongside Virat Kohli, Shubman Gill, KL Rahul, Axar Patel, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Suryakumar Yadav, Rohit Sharma, and Kuldeep Yadav.

• As of December 2024, Jadeja is India’s 7th highest wicket-taker in the One Day International format with 220 wickets.