8 wickets in 4 innings, yet former India WK-batter urges team to look beyond Ravindra Jadeja

India’s Ravindra Jadeja (ANI Photo) Ravindra Jadeja has been a mainstay of the Indian Test team for more than a decade, but former India batsman Deep Dasgupta believes the time has come for the team to start looking beyond the veteran all-rounder in the longest format.Jadeja, aged 37, finished India’s recent two-Test tour of Sri Lanka with eight wickets in four innings. However, Dasgupta felt that India’s spin attack failed to consistently put pressure on the hosts, especially on surfaces where the visitors would have expected their spinners to play a major role.The former India player picked the second Test in Colombo where Sri Lanka were forced to continue but managed to defend strongly. Sonal Dinusha’s century helped the hosts frustrate India and build a sizeable lead before the match eventually ended in a draw.

“Jadeja was a great servant but now it’s over”

While Jadeja picked up three wickets in Sri Lanka’s second innings, Dasgupta felt India needed more penetration from their experienced spinners.“Apart from Manava, our spinners didn’t look as deadly as we expected. I’m not saying there’s no ability. Jadeja has always been very destructive and deadly on pitches like this. I thought the fifth day would be decisive. He was a great servant, but now it’s happened. He wasn’t as accurate as he was. His action is very dominant on his YouTube channel,” Dasgupt said on his YouTube channel.

Dasgupta reports trouble without the ball

The series in Sri Lanka also highlighted a problem with India’s bowling discipline, with the spinners repeatedly overstepping. Saransh Jain, who bowled four on his Test debut in Colombo, while Jadeja took one over. Dasgupta believes that such issues need to be addressed during training rather than waiting for them to emerge in matches.“If you’re not careful in the nets, it happens. Even when I was playing, a lot of them jumped in front of me and said it won’t happen in a match, but they would repeat the same thing in a match. You have to avoid that in the nets. This problem is not new with Jadeja, it has only gotten worse,” he added.

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Share an opinionIndia won the two-match series 1-0 with a 165-run win in the opening Test in Galle before the second Test in Colombo ended in a draw. India’s next Test assignments will come with a tour of New Zealand scheduled for November before Australia travel to India for a five-match Test series starting in January 2027.