In a remarkable feat, Indian all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja etched his name in the annals of Test cricket history on Friday by surpassing the renowned left-arm spinner Bishan Singh Bedi to become India's most successful left-arm spinner. This significant milestone was achieved during India's intense battle against Australia in the ICC World Test Championship (WTC) final held at The Oval. During Australia's second innings, Jadeja displayed his prowess on the field, putting an end to the innings of two centurions from the previous innings, Steve Smith (34) and Travis Head (18).
Jadeja's exceptional performance on the day culminated in impressive bowling figures of 2/25, having bowled nine overs. This exceptional achievement further solidifies Jadeja's status as a remarkable left-arm spinner and serves as a testament to his skill and contribution to the Indian cricket team. His bowling figures comes after his innings of counter-attacking innings of worth 48 off 51 in India's first innings where the top-order had failed to provide a solid start to the side.
After his performance on Friday, Jadeja has extended his wickets tally to 267 scalps from 65 matches at an average of 24.25. On the other hand, Bedi had picked 266 wickets in 67 matches. In world cricket too, Jadeja is one of the finest left-arm spinners ever to have played the longest format of the game and the records are evident of that. In the all-time global list too, Jadeja finds himself in top 5 and is the fourth most-successful left-arm spinner in Test cricket. Only Sri Lanka's Rangana Herath (433 in 93 matches), Daniel Vettori (362 in 113 matches) and England's Derek Underwood (297 wickets in 86 matches) are ahead of the Saurashtra cricketer.
Despite the 34-year-old's decent performance though, India seem way behind in the WTC final where Australia have taken a lead in excess of 300 and have 5 wickets in hand with over 5 sessions remaining in the summit clash.