Jaydev Unadkat

A prodigious talent right from teenage days, Jaydev Unadkat has bloomed late with a strong 2017 IPL season making people to take notice of his improvement. He burst into the scene as a nippy left-arm pacer who could make the ball move both ways off the seam. Such was his talent that he spearheaded the Indian U19 bowling attack at the World Cup in 2010, following which the lucrative IPL contract came to him. Life was moving at terrific pace for young Unadkat who was even surprisingly blooded into India's Test squad for the tour of South Africa. The much anticipated debut happened subsequently but it was baptism by fire for him as he was sent on a leather hunt by the Protea batsmen.

There was a talk at that point that Unadkat was too raw for international cricket. He had the skills and also had started to develop plenty of variations for white-ball cricket. While he held his own in domestic cricket across formats, the left-armer struggled to click on the biggest stages. Unadkat didn't let this affect him though and continued to work hard on his game. His domestic game continued to improve, even as he switched teams in the IPL without really making any impact. The latest of the switches came for the temporary franchise Rising Pune Supergiant and he struck gold in the 2017 season. Unadkat was constantly picking wickets, both with the new ball and at the death.

The thing about Unadkat is that he seems to have finally gotten a grasp of his abilities and is honest enough to work on his weaknesses. His IPL exploits saw him featuring in India's T20I sides and has been a regular since his debut in the shortest format. Meanwhile, Unadkat has risen through the ranks as a red-ball bowler, having phenomenal Ranji Trophy seasons in 2018-19 and 2019-20, captaining Saurashtra with aplomb and also leading from the front. He has matured into a complete long-format bowler and perhaps, it's in Test cricket that Unadkat might finally realize his potential. He is still a very useful limited-overs bowler due to his ability to vary pace but he also has the tendency to overdo that, thereby making him predictable.

IPL through the years

The spearhead of India’s U19 team during the 2010 World Cup, Jaydev Unadkat’s journey in the IPL has been a mixed bag, spread across several franchises. Initially a wiry left-arm pacer who could swing the ball both ways, he learned very quickly that genuine pace isn’t enough to succeed in T20 cricket. Fresh from his success at the U19 level, he got picked by Kolkata Knight Riders whose bowling coach at that time, the legendary Wasim Akram, spoke highly about Unadkat’s skill set. His ability soon saw him getting a move to Royal Challengers Bangalore that lasted just a solitary season before moving to the Delhi franchise.

KKR then got Unadkat back in 2016 and all this while, he had never really got the long rope to showcase his skills. Inconsistency also dogged him but the sample size was really small to judge the young man from. With RR and CSK suspended, two temporary franchises, Gujarat Lions and Rising Pune Supergiant were formed, the second of which became Unadkat’s newest IPL home. After many years of being under the radar, the man from Gujarat had a standout IPL season in 2017, as he bowled RPS into the IPL final. Not only was he swinging the new ball but also seemed to have added a dimension to his game in the death overs.

Fueled by Unadkat’s 2017 heroics, he fetched a jaw-dropping price at the 2018 player auctions, making him the costliest buy of the season after RR pocketed him. It was an unbelievable turnaround and as he admitted later, the massive pressure of his price did affect Unadkat’s mental space during that season. RR chose to release him, in a bid to buy the pacer back at the auctions and they did manage to succeed but again, at a high price albeit lower than the 2018 costs. In recent years, captaincy of the domestic side has matured Unadkat considerably and with there being a dearth of quality left-arm pacers in India, Unadkat will be in the selectors’ radar as long as he can keep performing in domestic cricket.

By Hariprasad Sadanandan