Team India’s bowling department is looking stronger than ever. Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Shami and Jasprit Bumrah have formed a potent pace attack while the likes of Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin have the ability to dismantle any batting unit with their spin. Moreover, India’s bench strength is equally impressive. The likes of Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal are capable enough to walk straight into any playing eleven and the fact that they are yet to cement their spot in the playing eleven is a testament of India’s strong bowling lineup.
Fast-bowlers, leg-spinner, off-spinner, chinaman spinner, wrist spinners, India’s arsenal is filled with quality bowlers. However, one area where India is lacking right now is a left-arm pacer. Ever since the retirement of the legendary Zaheer Khan, India has not got a perfect replacement for the former left-arm pacer and with the next World Cup just a couple of years away, the Men in Blue will be desperate to have one quality pacer in the team.
Bowling coach Bharat Arun has already spoken on the importance of ‘even one good left-arm fast-bowler’ for the side.
“I have just come into this role so definitely we will be speaking to the coaches of the ‘A’ team and I guess there needs to be information that needs to be shared for us to make best use of bowlers coming in. We have wrist spinners like Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal. So, if we can get even one good left-arm fast bowler it will go well for the side,” Arun told reporters earlier this week.
Well, India’s domestic circuit has several quality left-arm seamers but Jaydev Unadkat looks like the best of the lot at the time being. The left-armer from Saurashtra has been on the scene since the last 6-7 years but had fizzled out after showing encouraging signs in his early days.
After representing India Under-19 in the 2010 World Cup, he made his Test debut in that very year after his sensational match-winning 13 for 103 against West Indies A. He joined the Indian Test squad in Sri Lanka as a nets bowler and was included in the squad for the year-end tour of South Africa, where he made his Test debut at Centurion. In 2013, he made his ODI debut against Zimbabwe on the back of some impressive performance in IPL and domestic cricket but he soon disappeared from the scene due to inconsistent performances and injuries.
He spent a considerable time off the field due to a stress fracture he picked up in 2014 and consequently managed to play just one Ranji Trophy game in the 2014-15 season, four in the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament and made one appearance for Delhi Daredevils in IPL 2015. However, he recovered from injury soon and made a brilliant comeback in the 2015-16 Ranji Trophy season, taking as many as 40 wickets that included four five-wicket hauls to help Saurashtra make it to the final.
And he once again impressed during this year’s IPL, playing an integral role in Rising Pune Supergiant’s march to the final. The left-arm quick picked up a staggering 24 wickets from just 12 games at 13.41 including a five-wicket haul and was behind only Bhuvneshwar Kumar in the list of this year’s highest wicket-taker.
There is no denying the fact that Unadkat failed to make his chances count during the limited opportunities he got for India but one can also not disagree with the fact that he is arguably the best left-arm seamer in the country right now. Moreover with just around two years left for the next World Cup, it will be better to groom an experienced campaigner like Unadkat instead of looking for any other option.