Jadhav was born on 26 March 1985 in Pune into a middle-class family which originally hails from Jadhavwadi in Madha in Solapur district. He is the youngest of four children. His father Mahadev Jadhav was employed as a clerk with the Maharashtra State Electricity Board until his retirement in 2003.

Jadhav lives in the western Pune locality of Kothrud and started playing cricket at the PYC Hindu Gymkhana. He initially represented Rainbow Cricket Club in tennis ball cricket tournaments, before getting selected for the Maharashtra under-19 team in 2004.

Jadhav, who was initially in the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) development squad, was signed by Delhi Daredevils in 2010. He made an immediate impact as he scored a 29-ball 50 for Delhi against RCB on his IPL debut. The following season he was signed by new franchise Kochi Tuskers Kerala, for whom he played only six matches that year. In 2013, he was re-signed by Delhi but was not retained by Delhi in the 2014 IPL auction before being bought back by the team for ₹ 20 million scoring 149 runs in 10 innings in 2014 for Delhi.

In 2012, Jadhav made his first triple century, scoring 327, the second-highest by a Maharashtra batsman in the Ranji Trophy, against Uttar Pradesh at Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Pune. During the 2013–14 Ranji Trophy season he scored 1,223 runs, including six centuries, the fourth-highest runs aggregate in the tournament’s history. This helped Maharashtra make their first Ranji Trophy final since 1992/93. Jadhav also represented India A and West Zone cricket team.

He was named in the Indian squad for Bangladesh tour in June 2014 but did not get a game. He played his first international match in November 2014 against Sri Lanka in the fifth match of the tour of India at Ranchi, scoring 20 runs off 24 balls before he was out stumped.

Jadhav played in all three ODIs against Zimbabwe in July 2015. In the third match at Harare, he scored 105 not out off 87 balls, his maiden ODI hundred. During the tour, he also made his T20I debut.

In January 2017 Jadhav scored 120 off 76 balls and shared a 200 run partnership with captain Virat Kohli to help India to register a win against England on his home ground. In the third match of the same series, he scored 90 runs and almost guided India home in a pursuit of 320. He was dismissed in the second last ball of the innings, and although, India lost the match Jadhav had by then firmly established his place in the middle order and was awarded the Player Of the Series award, having scored 232 runs in the series. Jadhav went on to represent India in the ICC Champions Trophy 2017 and has been an integral part of the Indian team since.

Ahead of the 2016 IPL, he was traded to Royal Challengers Bangalore for an undisclosed amount. In 2018, he was picked by Chennai Super Kings but was ruled out of the tournament after tearing his hamstring in the opening match.

In October 2019, he was named in India B’s squad for the 2019–20 Deodhar Trophy.

In April 2019, he was named in India’s squad for the 2019 Cricket World Cup.