da bet7： The India allrounder said working on his mindset and fitness had helped him maintain his superb form in 2025
da dobrowin： ESPNcricinfo staff04-Oct-20255:13
Jadeja on vice-captaincy, batting higher and playing without Ashwin
It was his 50th home Test, but the first one Ravindra Jadeja was playing without his long-time spin partner R Ashwin, who retired from international cricket last December. It was an unusual experience, but it made no difference as far as the impact Jadeja was able to make on the match. He scored an unbeaten 104, his sixth Test hundred, and took four second-innings wickets as India wrapped up victory over West Indies by an innings and 140 runs inside eight sessions in Ahmedabad.Among the factors behind India winning so commandingly was the strength of their spin attack even without Ashwin, with Jadeja bowling alongside Kuldeep Yadav and Washington Sundar, and with Axar Patel on the bench.”Obviously we do miss him,” Jadeja said after the Test, when asked how Ashwin’s absence felt. “Ash has contributed so much to Indian cricket, been a match-winner for so many years.”I was playing a [Test] match in India without Ash for the first time, so sometimes I did find myself thinking, yeah, Ash will come on and bowl, and then realising he isn’t there. But Kuldeep and Washy have already played so many matches, and we can’t call them youngsters, but it was a different combination.”In the future you will ask, Jaddu isn’t here, and someone else will be there. This is inevitable, and it will keep happening, but it feels good to contribute to the team.”Related
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Jadeja’s performance in Ahmedabad left him tantalisingly close to the double of 4000 runs and 300 wickets in Test cricket. He needs only 10 runs to become the fourth member of that particular club, and membership to an even more exclusive club — 5000 runs and 400 wickets, which presently only includes Kapil Dev — could also be within reach.”You’re putting pressure on me now,” Jadeja joked when asked about this. “I’ll have to start thinking about how to score 1000 more runs and take 60-70 more wickets.”At this stage I’m enjoying my cricket. I’m not thinking about records or milestones. I’m just working on my fitness and enjoying my cricket. Whenever I’m at home I always work on my fitness so that I just continue doing what I’ve been doing [for] so many years, so that’s about it.”At 36, Ravindra Jadeja is still sprightly on the field•Associated Press
The century in Ahmedabad extended a sensational 2025 with the bat for Jadeja. So far this year, he has scored 659 runs in seven Tests at an average of 82.37, with two hundreds and five fifties, with 516 of those runs coming in a series of remarkable consistency in England, which included a stretch of eight innings with six 50-plus scores.”I’ve worked on my batting — I’ve made some changes both mentally and skill-wise,” Jadeja said. “I used to have a different mindset before, in my batting, but I’ve made a few changes now.”Part of this, he said, came from regularly batting up the order. Since the start of 2023, he has batted 22 times at Nos. 5 and 6 in 40 innings.”If you get the chance to bat up the order, you definitely bat with a different mindset,” he said. “I’ve batted at No. 8 and 9 in Test matches before, and that comes with a different mindset, and if you bat with that mindset you can end up playing a loose shot and getting out.”I’ve also batted at No. 5 and 6, and that comes with a different mindset. You are aware of the responsibility you have to build partnerships with whichever batsman you are batting with. That has definitely made a difference.At 36, Jadeja is showing no perceptible signs of slowing down; he prowls the outfield as athletically as ever, and he has been largely injury-free since getting through a frustrating period in 2021-23 when injuries repeatedly kept him away from action.”Injuries can happen anytime,” he said. “There is no guarantee, and no precautions you can take [against them]. If you’re giving your 100% on the ground, you could have to dive anytime or put in an effort for a catch or a run-out.”Luckily, by god’s grace, I haven’t been injured that much and I work a lot on my fitness. I don’t put up a lot of videos of what all I do on social media, but I do it. And it has been making a difference on the ground, and it feels good that I’m able to give my 100% at this age, and it doesn’t feel like my fitness level is going down, so it puts me in a good frame of mind.”On being asked to expand on his fitness routines and whether that included monitoring his sleep cycles, Jadeja burst into laughter. “I keep it simple,” he said. “Not 8-9 hours, sometimes I sleep for longer too, and if I’m [enjoying my evening] I might sleep less too. But on a serious note, when matches are approaching, I know when to start my training, when to change my food intake. I have a very good idea of my body and what it needs and in what state it is in at any time.”
