For over seven decades, players from Mumbai formed the majority in the Indian cricket team, but now it seems it is Gujarat’s turn because there are more cricketers from Gujarat in the latest Indian cricket team for one-day matches, than from any other state.

The 15 member Indian cricket team for the one-day series in Sri Lanka that was announces on Sunday has four players from Gujarat, one more than what Mumbai and Delhi each have contributed.

Jamnagar boy Ravindra Jadeja is the latest player from Gujarat to make it to the national cricket team. Besides Jadeja, fast bowler Munaf Patel and the all-rounder brothers from Vadodara, Irfan and Yusuf Pathan are in the Shri Lanka series team.

Ravindra Jadeja had superbly performed 739 runs and took 42 wickets in recently concluded Ranji Trophy. He was top wicket-taker(42) and was the second leading run-scorer(739) for Saurasthra after Cheteshwar Pujara. He was also part of the under-19 World Cup winning team in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia last year. Jadeja is a lefty with the bat and ball. His stint with Rajasthan Royals at the Indian Premier League(IPL) last year was the turning point in his career. During IPL, he shared the dressing room with Shane Warne and his idol Yuvraj Singh. At the couple of press conferences before and after the IPL, Shane Warne had predicted that “Jadeja would be a superstar of Indian cricket.” Jadeja took superb catches under the lights in the deep.

Ravindra has become the first player from the Saurashtra region in Indian cricket team after almost 24 years. Last player from Saurashtra to play for India in tests was left-arm spinner Dilip Doshi way back in 1985. Surashtra team’s coach Debu Mitra is hopeful that more players from Saurashtra(Cheteshwar Pujara, Sandip Jobanputra, Jaydev Shah) would land in Indian team soon.

While Ravindra Jadeja would play one-day-international, eight players from Saurashtra have made it to the Test squad of Indian cricket team so far in the history.