When he is not playing cricket, Ravindra Jadeja often likes to get himself photographed dressed in all the finery of a Rajput prince. With a dream run in the ongoing Test series against Australia, and the International Cricket Council (ICC) ranking of No. 1 Test bowler, he may now want to upgrade his wardrobe.

He may already be priming to look like a king with a well-groomed, pointed black beard and a perfectly twirled moustache. Perhaps a bejewelled maharaja crown could be a nice addition to his wardrobe.

His Saurashtra teammates already call him "Chhatrapati" (king).

"The year has just started. He will achieve many more things. According to his astrology, 2017 will be very lucky for Revadi," says Naina Jadeja, his eldest sister, in a thick Gujarati accent. Jadeja, 28, is Revadi for his family and friends.

Although his lucky number is 12 - it is on his car number plates and the Indian Premier League (IPL) team jersey - Naina says that odd years are good for her brother and rattles off the list of Jadeja's "lucky" years. He made his debut for the India under-19 team in 2005 and the India ODI team in 2009; he climbed to the top of the ICC ODI bowlers list in 2013 and now, in 2017, he is the No. 1 Test bowler.

Left-arm spinners are considered artists with grace and guile. But not Jadeja. Purists scoff at his workman-like approach to the crease and the delivery which looks more like the animated GIFs that one gets to see on Twitter and WhatsApp, the same action repeated at a fast pace.

"How does it matter what people say. Jadeja is effective and his figures show that he is doing a good job. That alone matters and nothing else," says Bishan Singh Bedi, arguably the greatest left-arm spinner India produced.

The figures bear out Bedi. In fact, with 138 wickets in 29 Tests, Jadeja is the fourth highest wicket taker among Indian left-arm spinners. Bedi with 266 wickets in 67 matches, Vinoo Mankad with 162 wickets in 44 matches and Ravi Shastri with 151 wickets in 80 Tests are ahead of him. Jadeja looks set to forge ahead on that list fast.

Jadeja's record against opposition captains is exceptional by any standards. He has scalped former England skipper Alastair Cook seven times, former Aussie captain Michael Clarke five times and South Africa's Hashim Amla has got out three times. "I cannot explain it except to say that he is extremely accurate. He will not change his game plan. It is for the batsmen to take the risk. Maybe they underestimated his bowling," says Sitanshu Kotak, former Saurashtra captain.

Jadeja is in a league of his own, says Debu Mitra, former Saurashtra coach. It was sometime in 2011 that Jadeja told Mitra that he wanted to play for India wearing safed kapde, the India whites. "He was a regular in the ODI and T20 teams but he was restless to get into the Indian Test team. Looking at his bowling now, I feel that he has now become a mature cricketer. He is also looking a lot more relaxed," he says.

Jadeja was anything but relaxed when he was a short, wiry trainee under Mahendrasinh Chauhan at the Cricket Bungalow, a large cricket field in Jamnagar. "He was a very restless boy. He used to climb trees, scale walls and did everything a naughty kid would do. And he would always be running around the field," Chauhan, 53, says.

But his determination was unquestionable. "For six months, I didn't allow him, like every new player, to do anything else except for exercising, watering and cleaning the ground. He didn't lose interest as he knew that cricket was the only thing he wanted to do," says Chauhan, who sells pav-bhaji for a livelihood.

For Jadeja, the Bungalow was an escape from his one-bedroom home - with his mother, a nurse at the Guru Gobind Singh Government Hospital, Jamnagar, being the only person in the family of five with a regular income. His father, Anirudhsinh Jadeja, who had taken early retirement from the Army due to an injury, did odd jobs, like driving an auto rickshaw or working as a watchman.

Senior Jadeja wanted to send his son to the Sainik School at Balachadi, 30 kilometres north-east of Jamnagar. "He wanted Revadi to become an officer in the Army. In fact, his tuition teacher told us that he would clear the entrance exam easily as he was good in maths and aptitude," Naina says.

But Jadeja just wanted to play cricket and persuaded his mother to let him follow his dream. And the results were there for everybody to see within a short time.

"He was good at fielding, batting and bowling , very much in that order. He figured in almost every junior team," says Mahendra Rajdev, former Saurashtra junior team selector. He was only 16 when he appeared for the state in under-19 matches.

But one match that made everybody sit up and take notice was an under-19, 50-over match against Maharashtra at Mumbai's Wankhede Stadium in October 2005 when his fielding resulted in three run-outs and he won the match single-handed. "All the three were direct hits. Dilip Vengsarkar, who was in the stands, told me that he had never seen anything like that at the junior level," says Rajdev.

Jadeja was selected for the India under-19 team within days after that match. But there was no time to celebrate as his mother had passed away after suffering third degree burns in a kitchen accident.

Jadeja went on to represent India at the under-19 World Cups in 2006 and 2008, winning the latter under the captaincy of Virat Kohli.

Fitness is something he was always serious about, say those who know him for years. "His fitness levels are amazing," says Amogh Pandit, strength and conditioning coach, who has worked with him since his under-19 days. "I very distinctly remember that he had topped the fitness test scores three times when I was part of the Zonal Cricket Academy in Mumbai and the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore," Pandit recalls.

Jadeja hit the headlines in 2012 when the Chennai Super Kings under M.S. Dhoni broke the bank to hire Jadeja for a whopping $2 million (Rs 13 crore).

An introvert, Jadeja was suddenly in the limelight. Everything began to be judged by the money he was being paid. Every failure gave rise to a new Twitter hashtag and several memes. The fun people had at his expense didn't make any difference to him. "He has seen so many ups and downs that these things don't matter," Chauhan says.

Coming from Jamnagar, the place immortalised by the original princes of Indian cricket, K.S. Ranjitsinhji and K.S. Duleepsinghji, Jadeja likes to live like one.

He has a sprawling farm spread over eight acres in Pasaya, about 30 kilometres south-east of Jamnagar. He likes to spend time with his numerous swords, Kathiawari horses, dogs, luxury cars and Hayabusa bikes. "The farmhouse is also the only place where he can have his favourite non-veg Punjabi food as we don't eat meat at home," Naina says. Naina manages Jaddu's Food Field, an all-veg restaurant that Jadeja opened in Rajkot in 2012. But it has a Jaddu Special thali comprising three Punjabi curries.

When Jadeja was selected for India, Jadeja's father felt that his son had become a colonel in the Army. How does he feel now? "He probably feels that Revadi has become a general," Naina says. Well, not a general quite, but it isn't a mean achievement that his teammates "knighted" him a fair while back; Sir Jadeja hasn't disappointed them.