Drug testing in sport: As many as 58 samples were collected from Indian cricketer Jadeja in first five months

Star India all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja gave dope samples thrice between January and May this year, making him the most tested cricketer during this period, according to data released by the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA).

Altogether 55 cricketers (male and female, 58 samples) underwent dope testing in the first five months of this year, with more than half of the samples taken 'Out Of Competition' (OOC), according to a recent list put up by the NADA on its website.

This meant that the number of samples collected from cricketers this year is expected to be much more than the previous two years. According to the data, the NADA had collected 54 and 60 samples respectively from the cricketers in 2021 and 2022 respectively.

India captain Rohit Sharma and star batter Virat Kohli were not tested during the first five months of 2023.

Hardik Pandya, who has been leading the India T20 International side for some time, underwent one test -- 'Out Of Competition' (OOC) urine sample in April.

In 2021 and 2022, Rohit was the most tested cricketer with three samples each, according to NADA data of the two years. Kohli was not tested in 2021 and 2022 also.

Around 20 samples in 2022 were from women cricketers.

But, in the first five months of this year, only two women cricketers -- India captain Harmanpreet Kaur and her deputy Smriti Mandhana -- were tested once each -- out-of-competition urine samples collected in Mumbai on January 12.

Around 20 samples were taken in competition, most of them during the Indian Premier League. There were seven blood samples out of the 58, all the remaining being urine.

All of Jadeja's three samples were of urine, and taken out of competition on February 19, March 26 and April 26.

Thangarasu Natarajan underwent two tests, one urine and one blood -- both on April 27.

Blood testing allows detection of additional substances that in some cases may not be able to be found in urine.

Additionally, blood samples allow the use of longitudinal data collection, often called the athlete biological passport.

Track and athletes were tested the most with around 500 samples, followed by weightlifting (around 200), boxing (more than 100), shooting and wrestling (more than 70 each), and football and hockey (more than 50 each).