Jaydev Unadkat Made His India Comeback After 12 Years, A Revisit

Aakash Saini

Jaydev Unadkat [Source: @ForesayCricket/x]Jaydev Unadkat [Source: @ForesayCricket/x]

Jaydev Unadkat, a resolute paceman from Saurashtra and a workhorse in red-ball cricket, received his maiden Indian Test cap in December 2010 during India’s tour of South Africa. At the time, the speedster rubbed the shoulders with some of the greats of Indian cricket, including Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, Virender Sehwag and MS Dhoni among others.

However, as India slipped to one of its heaviest drubbings in the format, Unadkat was casted away from playing XI contention for over the next decade. Here, we take a look at his triumphant return to Indian whites, as he did so in late 2022 with a match in Bangladesh.

When Jaydev Unadkat played a Test after 12 years

Jaydev Unadkat made his Test debut for India at the age of 19 in Centurion back in December 2010, doing so under the leadership of MS Dhoni. However, the speedster was subsequently removed from the Indian team courtesy of his wicketless spell against hosts South Africa.

As it turned out, Unadkat resorted back to his domestic roots, as he grinded himself with prolific wicket-taking seasons for Saurashtra. After having made to wait 12 years and missing 118 Tests in between (second most by any Indian player), the cricketer made a triumphant return to the Indian Test XI, replacing Mohammed Shami in the squad for India’s away series against Bangladesh in December 2022.

Jaydev Unadkat celebrated the occasion by picking up the first wicket of his Test career, by getting rid of Zakir Hasan with some extra bounce off the Mirpur surface.

He added a couple more Test caps to his career, and played the last of his four matches against West Indies at Port of Spain in July 2023.

Apart from four Tests, Jaydev Unadkat has also played eight ODIs and 10 T20I matches for Team India, picking up 26 wickets across all forms of the game.

Aged 33, the speedster is currently plying his trade for the SRH franchise in the ongoing IPL 2025 season.