This Indian Cricketer Has Given Dope Test Most Times In 2023 So Far, He's Not Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Hardik Pandya

NADA has collected 58 samples from 55 Indian cricketers till May 2023. Ravindra Jadeja, India's spin-bowling all-rounder, has been tested the most times in five-month period.

Indian Cricket Team. (Source: ANI)

Indian cricket team plays cricket all round the year and the Indian cricketers are the busiest players in the sport in the whole world, playing international cricket as well as two-month long Indian Premier League. Did you know that like the Olympic sports athletes, the Indian cricketers also get tested for doping? If you didn't, the answer is yes. According a report released by National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA), a total of 55 cricketers (both men's and women's) were have been tested this year till May. This amounts to a total of 58 samples. More than half of these samples have been taken 'Out of Competition'. 

It is expected that NADA is going to test more cricketers this year. In 2021 and 2022, a total of 54 and 60 samples were collected from cricketers. 

Do you know which cricketer has been tested the most times?

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— BCCI (@BCCI) August 10, 2023

Out of the 55 cricketers who have been tested by NADA the most times in 2023, there is one player who has been tested three times, the most this year, till May. He is India all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja. The cricketer has been tested thrice between January and May. Jadeja was tested on February 19, March 26 and April 26. What's more interesting is that neither Virat Kohli nor India captain Rohit Sharma have been testedt even once in the first five months of 2023.

India's T20I captain Hardik Pandya, however, was tested once in April. It was an Out of Competition test that he underwent. He has given a Urine sample.

In 2021 and 2022, Rohit was the most tested cricketer, giving his sample three times each. Kohli, on the other hand, has not been tested even once between 2021 and 2023.

Among women cricketers, only two players have been tested. They are Harmanpreet Kaur and Smriti Mandhana. They were tested out of competition in January after they gave their urine samples. 

During IPL, NADA took 20 samples out of the cricketers. India's left-arm pacer T Natarajan also got tested twice, one urine and one blood sample, and both of these tests were organised on April 27. 

More prominent names who got tested by NADA in 2023 are Suryakumar Yadav, KL Rahul, Ishan Kishan, Mohammed Siraj, Deepak Chahar, Mayank Agarwal, Rahul Tripathi, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Wriddhiman Saha, Dinesh Karthik, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ambati Rayudu, Piyush Chawla and Manish Pandey.

Not to forget, there were some international players too who got tested for doping. They are David Wiese, David Miller, Cameron Green, Sunil Narine, Andre Russell, David Warner, Rashid Khan, David Willey, Trent Boult, Marcus Stoinis, Mark Wood, Adam Zampa, Sam Curran, Liam Livingstone and Jofra Archer.

All these tests for players took place during the sixteenth edition of Indian Premier League (IPL 2023)