If Bangladesh complain that India have been bestowed with an unfair advantage by being allowed to field 13 players in an 11-versus-11 contest, you might be inclined to sympathise with them. Ravindra Jadeja and R Ashwin are primarily bowlers, and mighty fine ones, at that. The former is closing in on 300 Test wickets (294), the latter is India’s second-highest wicket-taker in Tests with 516 scalps, next only to Anil Kumble’s record 619.

So, how can they string together a potentially match-turning partnership of 195, and counting?

Because they are mighty fine batters too. Simple.

Actually, these two combined aren’t just four cricketers in two, because Jadeja has another spectacular string to his bow – his electric fielding, which alone is capable of altering, and has altered, the course of many a game. Unfair much? Welcome to the world of India’s spinning all-rounders.

Only on Wednesday, new head coach Gautam Gambhir spoke passionately about all-rounders within the Indian set-up. The question confronting him was the absence of a genuine seam-bowling all-rounder, which seemed to raise Gambhir’s hackles. “We've been talking about it since Kapil Dev’s days,” he snapped, “that we don't have a fast-bowling all-rounder. If we don't have one, we don't have one.

“But look at the spin-bowling all-rounders we have, people like Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar. We've got quality all around us. When we keep talking about seeing fast-bowling all-rounders, let's not get obsessed with that. Tell me, how many international sides have spinning all-rounders of the quality that we have? Let's talk about quality, which is important; we are very fortunate in that.”

One is not sure if either Ashwin, who is a fairly avid reader, or Jadeja was aware of their coach’s extraordinary vote of confidence and show of support. Doesn’t matter. On day one of India’s snappy home season of five Tests, they joined hands with their side in a pickle, and came away with their reputations enhanced as men for a crisis, as vitally significant to the team with the bat as with the ball.

Before Thursday, the first day of the first Test against Bangladesh, Ashwin had five Test hundreds, the last of them coming three and a half years back at the same MA Chidambaram Stadium in the city of his birth, Chennai. Jadeja, who took time convincing himself that he had the tools to succeed as a batter in Test cricket, had four three-figure knocks. Their entertaining, innings-salvaging unbroken alliance of 195 shouldn’t have come as a surprise. If it did, that’s only because of the carnage that had unfolded before the two spin twins joined hands.

A rearguard effort for the ages

India lost three wickets, including skipper Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, to Hasan Mahmud in the first hour; after two briefly steadying associations, they lost two wickets in five deliveries, subsiding to 144 for six. Having asked for, and got, a surface with bounce and seam, they seemed hoisted with their own petard, perhaps doubting the wisdom of their requirement until the blazing Ashwin and the only slightly more becalmed Jadeja spared their blushes.

Ashwin in full flow cut a glorious sight at the batting crease. Tall and blessed with time as well as timing, he is as elegant as some of the most striking batters to represent the country. Various times in the past, he has invoked his inner VVS Laxman spirit, drawing not-unfair comparisons with the Hyderabadi genius when pulling off the front foot or standing tall and punching off the back foot with minimum effort.

Jadeja is a little more workmanlike, not necessarily blessed with the left-hander’s natural grace but making up for it with spunk, smarts and terrific commonsense. He has been a master at playing the percentages from the time he started to believe that there is more to him than just a lower-order tonker, and the results have been there for all to see. Since his monumental unbeaten 175 against Sri Lanka in Mohali in February 2022, Jadeja has two further hundreds and three fifties in his last 19 Test innings, and has so impressed the think-tank that he has been pushed up to as high as No. 5 in the batting order.

Both can intuitively get into the bowlers’ head, because they constantly keep thinking about how they would approach bowling in a particular situation, on a particular track. They are also naturally intelligent individuals adept at sizing up conditions rapidly. Those traits came in handy on Thursday, which ended with Ashwin on 102 and Jadeja 14 short of his sixth three-figure knock. And to think that their stronger, more celebrated suit is still to come.

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