Ravindra Jadeja outshines Rishabh Pant as the lone shining star on Ranji Trophy comeback for India

Ravindra Jadeja marked a sensational comeback to the Ranji Trophy for Saurashtra by taking a five-wicket haul against Delhi in their Round 6 clash in Rajkot. The Indian all-rounder scalped the wickets of opener Sanat Sangwan (12), Yash Dhull (44), captain Ayush Badoni (60), Harsh Tyagi (3), and Navdeep Saini (0) to make a significant impact on the match.

Rishabh Pant, who was also making his return to the Ranji Trophy for Delhi, had a disappointing first innings, as he could only muster one run off 10 balls, before losing his wicket to Dharmendrasinh Jadeja.

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The match also marked Jadeja’s 35th career First-Class five-wicket haul, and his overall tally of wickets for Saurashtra now stands at 201. He is only the fourth Saurashtra bowler to claim 200 wickets or more.

In his previous Ranji Trophy outing against Tamil Nadu in January 2023, Jadeja took eight wickets. Jadeja has always represented Saurashtra in domestic cricket. He made his first-class debut in the 2006-07 Duleep Trophy, where he played for West Zone. Meanwhile, he also debuted with Saurashtra at the Ranji Trophy.

In 2012, he became the eighth player in history and the first Indian, to bag three first-class triple centuries in his career, entering an elite list consisting of Sir Don Bradman, Brian Lara, Bill Ponsford, Wally Hammond, WG Grace, Graeme Hick and Mike Hussey. His first triple ton came in November 2011, when he got 314 off 375 deliveries vs Orissa. Then he got 303* vs Gujarat in November 2012, followed by 331 off 501 balls vs Railways next month.

Also in the latest ICC rankings, Jadeja is the No. 1 Test all-rounder, with 400 rating points, ahead of Marco Jansen (294), Mehidy Hasan (284), Pat Cummins (282) and Shakib Al Hasan (263).

Jadeja’s return to the Ranji Trophy comes after India’s poor performance in their 1-3 loss vs Australia at the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Since the defeat, the BCCI has been trying to pressurise India regulars to participate in domestic tournaments like Ranji Trophy for match fitness.

How did other Team India stars perform?

Other than Pant, even Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill put in poor displays. Rohit’s return to the Ranji Trophy saw him get dismissed for three runs in the first innings against Jammu and Kashmir. Meanwhile, Shreyas Iyer, who has been named in the Champions Trophy squad, was dismissed for 11 runs, getting caught at mid-on. In the match between Karnataka and Punjab, Shubman Gill was also caught behind, leaving for only four runs.

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