On the third day of the Gaule Test match, Ravindra Jadeja not only reached the milestone of 350 Test wickets but also secured his place in an exclusive club in Indian cricket history. Jadeja is now the second Indian to accumulate over 4000 Test runs and more than 350 wickets.
Before him in this list was only Kapil Dev. As soon as Jadeja reached 350 Test wickets, his name joined this special list, which includes only four world cricketers.
Kapil Dev accumulated 5248 runs and 434 wickets throughout his career. Other members of this club include Ian Botham from England, who has 5200 runs and 383 wickets, and Daniel Vettori from New Zealand, who scored 4531 runs and 362 wickets. The fourth member of this elite group is now Ravindra Jadeja with figures of 4108 runs and 351 wickets.
Furthermore, this achievement is significant because Jadeja became the fifth Indian to take 350 or more Test wickets. Before him were Anil Kumble (619), Ravichandran Ashwin (537), Kapil Dev (434), and Harbhajan Singh (417).
This means that Jadeja has made another major leap in the list of great Indian bowlers. Notably, unlike the other four, Jadeja has always been more associated with the role of an all-rounder rather than a pure bowler.
With 351 wickets, Jadeja ranks third among left-arm spinners in Test history. The leader in this list is Rana Garrett from Sri Lanka with 433 wickets. Daniel Vettori has 362 wickets, and Jadeja is just behind him with 351 wickets. Thus, he needs only 11 more wickets to overtake Vettori and take second place among left-arm spinners in Test history. Following them are Derek Underwood from England with 297 and Taijul Islam from Bangladesh with 271 wickets.
Another statistic that makes Jadeja's performance outstanding is his average strike rate. Among left-arm spinners who have taken at least 125 Test wickets, Jadeja demonstrates a strike rate of 58.0. The best strike rate among them belongs to Keshav Maharaj from South Africa, whose rate is 56.4. This indicates that Jadeja is not just a spinner creating pressure through consistent play, but also one of the best bowlers in his category in terms of wicket-taking ability.
The most important part of Jadeja's achievement is that 351 wickets is not his only accomplishment in his career. He has also scored over 4000 runs in Tests. This is the very 'double' result that puts him on par with Kapil Dev. This parallel is interesting because Kapil was a great all-rounder specializing in fast bowling, whereas Jadeja is a left-arm spin all-rounder. Despite differences in style, both their ability to consistently contribute in both attack and defense in Tests has brought them to the same historical level.
During the match, the Sri Lankan team was dismissed for 284 runs on the third day, allowing India to gain a first innings lead of 178 runs. Ravindra Jadeja took 3 wickets, giving 3 wickets for 57 runs, bowling 21 overs, including 5 maidens. Manav Chatur took 4 wickets, conceding 76 runs in 21.4 overs, including 1 maiden over.