After 12 years, six days and 179 deliveries, Jaydev Unadkat finally got his maiden wicket in Test cricket. The left-armer had gone wicketless on his Test debut way back in December 2010 against South Africa in Centurion. After that, Unadkat is playing his second Test, which began today against Bangladesh in Mirpur.
Notably, it is the longest wait between two Test matches by an Indian in terms of years and Test matches missed and the second-longest in the world after England’s Gareth Batty. Unadkat missed 118 Tests between December 2010 and December 2022. But his wait paid off well as he bowled an absolute beauty to get rid of Bangladesh opener Zakir Hasan.
It all happened on the fifth ball of the 15th over when Unadkat, who replaced Kuldeep Yadav in the India XI for the second Test, delivered a short-of-length ball that had some extra bounce. Zakir was cramped for room, and the ball lobbed up towards the fourth slip off his glove before Indian skipper KL Rahul took a simple catch.
Here is the video:
Happiness is watching @JUnadkat get his first Test wicket 🥹💙
Pure joy on the face of the left-arm pacer as he gets his first scalp following his comeback for 🇮🇳 in Whites after 1️⃣2⃣ years 🙌#BANvIND #JaydevUnadkat #SonySportsNetwork pic.twitter.com/2txsBaQ284
— Sony Sports Network (@SonySportsNetwk) December 22, 2022
Most consecutive Tests missed between appearances:
142 – Gareth Batty (2005-16)
118 – Jaydev Unadkat (2010-22)*
114 – Martin Bicknell (1993-03)
109 – Floyd Reiffer (1999-09)
104 – Younis Ahmed (1969-87)
103 – Derek Shackleton (1951-63)
Earlier, Bangladesh won the toss and opted to bat first. While the Bangladesh skipper was certain about the conditions, Indian skipper Rahul said he wasn’t sure about how the surface would perform.
“We’d have done the same. To be honest, on seeing the surface, not sure what to make of it. There is some grass that you can see, but it’s generally good to bat here. There is generally some bounce here and some help for both pacers and spinners. We’d have wanted to bat first, but we aren’t sure what to expect,” said Rahul.
