Jaydev Unadkat to replace Mohammed Shami for Tests in Bangladesh
Dec 10, 2022
Chattogram [Bangladesh], December 10 : Saurashtra captain Jaydev Unadkat has been called up to replace the injured Mohammed Shami in India's Test team in Bangladesh.
Unadkat, now in Rajkot, is awaiting the completion of his visa requirements and is likely to join the Test squad in Chattogram in the next couple of days. He recently led Saurashtra to the Vijay Hazare title.
Shami is currently nursing his shoulder injury at the BCCI's National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru. He sustained the right shoulder injury during a training session before the Bangladesh tour. Shami's availability for the Tests was ruled out after he missed the ODI leg of the tour, failing to recover in time, as per ESPNcricinfo.
This is only the second call-up to the Test squad for Unadkat at the age of 31. His sole previous outing in the format came precisely 12 years ago, as a teenager fresh out of the India Under-19s, in the first Test of the 2010-11 South African tour. In that Centurion Test, India lost by an innings and 25 runs, and he finished with figures of none for 101.
Unadkat will be the second player to join India's Test team in Bangladesh as an injury replacement. Abhimanyu Easwaran, the Bengal opener who led India A to a 1-0 win over Bangladesh A, was called up as a replacement for Rohit Sharma, who returned home after injuring his right thumb in the third ODI.
Left-arm spinner Saurabh Kumar is also in-line to be a potential replacement for Ravindra Jadeja. Saurabh finished Bangladesh A tour with 15 wickets from two red-ball games.
Unadkat has amassed an excellent body of work with Saurashtra, the team he led to a wave of wins in the Indian domestic circuit over the last five years. During their first Ranji Trophy title win in 2019-20, he took 67 wickets, the second-highest haul by a bowler in a season.
Unadkat picked up 115 wickets in 21 matches in the last three Ranji seasons.
Since the beginning of January 2019, Unadkat's bowling average of 16.03 is the finest of all first-class cricket. He has 126 wickets in 24 matches, including nine five-fors and three ten-wicket match hauls, with a best of 7 for 56.
Unadkat has built his reputation around bowling on Rajkot's notoriously lifeless pitches over the years. His ability to swing the new ball and reverse the old ball has resulted in many wickets, and his increased endurance has allowed him to bowl longer spells as he demonstrated in the 2019-20 season.
He has also featured in seven ODIs and 10 T20Is. His last appearance for India was during the team's victorious 2019 Nidahas Trophy campaign.
