Champions Trophy: Can Ravindra Jadeja replicate his 2013 heroics?
What's the story
Ravindra Jadeja, a pivotal player in India's recent ODI series win over England, has credited his phenomenal performance to his time in domestic cricket.
The series marked Jadeja's return to the format after the 2023 World Cup final.
He is now gearing up for the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy, which gets underway on February 19.
Here's why he will be instrumental to India's success in the tourney.
Rhythm retention
Jadeja's domestic cricket experience maintained his rhythm
Jadeja claimed match-winning three-fers in the first two games of the recent series against England before being rested for the final match.
The veteran was pleased with his performance in the ODIs, particularly after a two-year gap from the format.
He stressed on the need to adapt quickly to this format and credited his domestic game against Delhi for keeping his rhythm intact.
Retirement and performance
Jadeja's retirement and Ranji Trophy performance
Notably, Jadeja had retired from T20Is after India's World Cup win in June last year.
This meant that he had no cricket between the Border-Gavaskar Trophy (which concluded in early 2025) and this ODI series.
He played two Ranji Trophy matches during this time, but only bowled in one of them where he took 12 wickets across two innings from 30 overs.
Milestone
Jadeja's stellar 2013 CT campaign
Though Jadeja has featured in the last two Champions Trophy editions, his all-round heroics in the 2013 event stand out.
With 12 wickets at 12.83, he finished as the highest wicket-taker of the competition as India tasted glory by winning all their five games.
The southpaw also played a couple of valueable cameos. Overall, the spinner has claimed 16 wickets across 10 CT outings at 25.18.
The tally also includes 95 runs.
Spell
Do you know?
Jadeja is the only Indian with a fifer in the tournament.
He produced a record-breaking performance in the 2013 Champions Trophy. He took five wickets for just 36 runs (10 overs) against West Indies at The Oval.
The left-arm spinner ignited a collapse as WI went from 103/1 to 182/9.
WI eventually finished at 233/9. India comfortably chased down the total as Jadeja was named the Player of the Match.
Career
Here are his ODI numbers
Having played 199 ODIs so far, Jadeja has scalped 226 wickets at an economy rate of 4.86.
The tally includes seven four-fers and a couple of fifers.
With the bat, the southpaw has clobbered 2,779 runs at 32.69 with the help of 13 fifties.
He is just among the 11 players with the double of 2,500 runs and 200 wickets in ODI cricket.