Ravindra Jadeja continued to make an impact with the ball in Colombo on Tuesday, but another unsuccessful DRS review added to one of the most unusual streaks of his Test career.
Jadeja has now gone 22 consecutive reviews off his bowling without an on-field decision being overturned, a sequence that stretches back more than three years. India has lost 18 of those reviews, while the remaining four ended as umpire’s call.
The latest came during Sri Lanka’s first innings in the second Test when India reviewed an lbw decision against Keshara Nuwantha. Replays quickly showed a sizeable inside edge before the ball reached the pad, leaving the original not-out decision intact and India without the review.
The numbers become even more striking when placed alongside Jadeja’s effectiveness as a bowler. He later dismissed Pasindu Sooriyabandara for 80, taking his Test wicket tally to 353 as India reduced Sri Lanka to 265/8. There is an important distinction within Jadeja’s 22-review drought. An umpire’s-call verdict does not cost the reviewing team its referral because the evidence is not conclusive enough to overturn the original decision. That means Jadeja’s sequence includes 18 reviews that India definitively lost and four that survived as umpire’s call.
His last successful review came against West Indies batter Kemar Roach during the first Test in Dominica in July 2023. Roach was given not out after Jadeja struck him on the pad, but India challenged the decision and ball-tracking confirmed that the delivery would have hit the stumps. Roach was dismissed for one, with the wicket taking Jadeja’s Test tally to 271.
Since then, Jadeja has taken another 82 Test wickets without a single review off his bowling producing an overturned decision.
The drought is particularly notable because Jadeja’s enthusiasm for reviews has been a talking point for years. During Australia’s first innings in the 2023 Indore Test, India used all three of their reviews on appeals involving Jadeja, without overturning any of them.
Rohit Sharma even joked before the Ahmedabad Test that Jadeja seemed convinced every ball was out and sometimes needed to be talked out of reviews.
Five months later, Jadeja’s referral against Roach appeared to vindicate that confidence. But there has been no repeat since.
For a bowler who has continued to collect wickets at an extraordinary rate, the DRS numbers represent an unusual blemish. Jadeja has taken 353 Test wickets during his career and remains one of India’s most reliable all-rounders.
