India vs Australia: Ravindra Jadeja joins Sachin Tendulkar, Kapil Dev in elite list of allrounders

Indian allrounder Ravindra Jadeja joined en elite list comprising of Sachin Tendulkar and Kapil Dev during the third ODI against Australia at MCG.

Indian allrounder Ravindra Jadeja on Friday joined legends Sachin Tendulkar and Kapil Dev in an elite list of allrounders during the 3rd ODI against Australia at MCG.

After scoring 10 runs in the match, the left-handed batsman became the third Indian cricketer to score 2,000 runs and take more than 150 wickets in the international 50-over game.

While Tendulkar scored 18,426 runs and took 154 wickets in 463 ODIs, 1983 World Cup Winning Indian captain Kapil scored 3,783 runs and took 254 wickets in his career. Jadeja, who has played 148 ODIs so far has taken 171 wickets.

Jadeja crossed the milestone during India’s second ODI against Australia in Nagpur. He came in at a time when India were placed precariously on 171/6. With Captain Virat Kohli on the other side, Jadeja helped in stabilising the Indian innings.

He also played in the first ODI of the series, although he couldn’t take any wickets and didn’t bat.

With the pair of Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal having a successful tour in South Africa in the format, Jadeja found himself on the fringes in the team. But after a wait of 14 months, he was included in the Asia Cup squad when Hardik Pandya picked up an injury.

His allround performance in the tournament revived his ODI career.

He continued his good form into the Test and ODI series in Australia and threw his hat into the mix for World Cup selection.

Since his comeback, Jadeja has picked only 16 wickets in 12 games, but managed those with an economy rate 4.62, easily the best among the Indian bowlers in this span.

India lead the five-match series 1-0 having beaten Australia by six wickets in the first ODI in Hyderabad. Jadeja bowled a miserly spell of 10 overs in which he conceded just 33 runs.

It helped Kuldeep Yadav, Kedar Jadhav and Mohammed Shami pick wickets as India dominated the middle overs.