Gone are the days when Saurashtra left-arm seamer Jaydev Unadkat was cursing his luck over lack of opportunities at the highest level. Picked for the Zimbabwe tour after a successful domestic season and India Premier League, Unadkat has done exceedingly well, bagging five wickets in two matches so far, including a four-wicket haul in the second ODI. The opponents may be minnows in world cricket, but it is heartening to see Unadkat doing all the right things.
In the second match at Harare, he was India's best bowler, consistently hitting the right areas outside off-stump, mixing the slower balls well, and in the end, finishing things off for India with yorkers.
Making a transition from domestic to the international cricket is always difficult as Unadkat himself discovered during his Test debut 36 months ago. Then a wide-eyed 19-year-old with little first-class experience, he was thrown into the deep end against South Africa at the Centurion and figures of 26-4-101-0 in the game pretty much put the brakes on his fledgling career.
But the small-town boy from Mahatma Gandhi's birthplace, Porbandar, was not disheartened. He was back in the domestic grind and by the time IPL 2013 came around, he looked a much more capable bowler. In Zaheer Khan's absence, the Saurashtra lad played a crucial role for Royal Challengers Bangalore, bowling with better pace, accuracy and focus. He picked up a five-wicket haul against Delhi Daredevils that included the wickets of the top three batsmen and he used reverse swing to good effect, much like Zaheer at his prime.
Former India opener Aakash Chopra reckons Unadkat has improved a lot over the last season. "He has been very good. Earlier, he only managed to take the ball away from the right-hander and now he is getting the ball into the right-hander. From what I can see, his pace has also increased. But let us not get too carried away. He has just played a couple of games for India and let us see how he does in the coming matches," he said.
Kiran More, former chief selector and India wicketkeeper too feels Unadkat has become a better bowler. "He is a young man and a exciting prospect. We cricketers go through bad patches and have come back successfully and he too has done that. He has improved a lot in the past one or two seasons. He looks a much matured bowler now," he said.
Unadkat's re-emergence in the national scene also assumes significance in the context of the upcoming tour of South Africa. Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Ishant Sharma seem to have cemented their spots while Umesh Yadav has done reasonably well as the third seamer. But he has also been wayward. Also, the tall Unadkat, with his ability to swing the ball both ways, can edge ahead in the battle for the fourth seamer’s spot in South Africa.
More is optimistic. "Yes he can. In South African conditions, we need a lot of options in the pace department and Unadkat may get the nod if he keeps doing well. Being a left-hander is an advantage and he can add variety to the line-up. For now, he is in the India A squad for South Africa and let us see how he does," he said. But Chopra prefers to be cautious, quipping: "He is a talented pacer, but I wouldn't see that far. It does look a bit far-fetched at the moment.”
But come Boxing Day, if Unadkat takes the field for the first Test in Durban, South Africa can do well to not underestimate him.