Ban vs Ind Test series

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Jaydev Unadkat has been called into India’s Test squad in Bangladesh in place of injured Mohammed Shami. Unadkat is currently in Rajkot, waiting to complete his visa formalities, and is expected to link up with the Test team in Chattogram in the next few days.

Shami is currently undergoing rehab for a shoulder injury at the BCCI’s National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru. He picked up a right shoulder injury during a training session before the tour of Bangladesh. After missing the ODI leg of the tour, there was a slim chance that Shami would be fit for the Tests, but it has now been ruled out.

For the 31-year-old Unadkat, this is only the second call-up to the Test team. His only appearance in the format so far was almost 12 years ago as a teenager straight out of India Under-19s in the first Test of the 2010–11 tour of South Africa. In that Test, at Centurion, he finished with figures of none for 101 as India lost by an innings and 25 runs.
Unadkat is the second player to join India’s Test squad in Bangladesh as an injury replacement. On Friday evening, Abhimanyu Easwaran, the Bengal player who led India A to a 1-0 win in the four-day series against Bangladesh A on the shadow tour, was called up as cover for Rohit Sharma, who went home to Mumbai went. To recover from a finger injury sustained during the ODI series. Left-arm spinner Saurabh Kumar is also in line to replace Ravindra Jadeja. Saurabh ended the ‘A’ tour with 15 wickets in two red-ball matches.

Over the past five years, Unadkat has built up an impressive body of work with Saurashtra, the team he has led to a wave of success in the Indian domestic circuit. He was front and center during their maiden Ranji Trophy title win in 2019–20, taking 67 wickets, the second highest haul by a bowler in a season. In the last three Ranji seasons, Unadkat has taken 115 wickets in 21 matches.

Unadkat’s bowling average of 16.03 since the start of January 2019 is the best in all first-class cricket over that period. He has taken 126 wickets in 24 matches during this period, with best figures of 7 for 56, including nine five-fors and three ten-wicket hauls.

In an interview with ESPNcricinfo last week, ahead of the Vijay Hazare Trophy final, Unadkat reiterated that “the hunger and fire to play and perform for the country is still burning”. Unadkat led Saurashtra to the title as the tournament’s highest wicket-taker with 19 wickets in ten matches.

He had said, “I look at my individual performance, but in a way that it takes the team forward, not in a way where I think it will help me get selected for India or India A.” “At the end of the day, that’s where you want to be and I’m happily trying to help the team win as many games as possible. If you love the way the game is played, then all other things are fine.” I love this place and the mindset I am currently in and wouldn’t want to change it for anything. But the hunger and fire to play and perform for the country is still burning.”

Over the years, Unadkat has built its USP around bowling at the famous Bejan Deck in Rajkot. His ability to swing the new ball and reverse the old one has fetched him plenty of wickets, and his improved fitness has helped him deliver longer spells, something he worked on tirelessly during the 2019-20 campaign. What he later described as “career-defining”.

Apart from one Test, Unadkat has also played seven ODIs and ten T20Is. He was last part of the Indian team during the Nidahas Trophy campaign in Sri Lanka in March 2019.



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