“Dear Red ball, please give me one more chance,” Jaydev Unadkat desperate for an opportunity in test cricket

The Saurashtra left-arm seamer Jaydev Unadkat is desperate for one last chance in red-ball cricket after he played his first and only test match about a decade ago on India’s tour of South Africa in 2010.

Unadkat is generally judged by his white-ball stats in the IPL which are not very good, but he has got decent stats to his name in red-ball cricket and people often wonder why he is never considered by the selectors for a test recall, despite the lack of a quality left-arm seamer in India’s set up at the moment.

The last time the Ranji trophy was held in India a couple of years ago, Jaydev Unadkat had not only bowled brilliantly for Saurashtra, he had also led them brilliantly and there were talks at that stage that the southpaw might be given an opportunity to come back, but he eventually wasn’t recalled in the aftermath of the Ranji final and then fell off the radar, as the selectors started focusing more on the India A players, rather than the Ranji performers.

Putting out a tweet yesterday, Unadkat wrote, “Dear Red ball, please give me one more chance, I will make you proud”. The tweet got mixed reactions from fans, as some of the fans were not convinced that Unadkat should be brought back into the Indian set-up again, while some others heaped praise on the Saurashtra skipper for years of grind in the domestic circuit.

Dear red ball, please give me one more chance.. I’ll make you proud, promise! pic.twitter.com/ThPUOpRlyR

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— Jaydev Unadkat (@JUnadkat) January 4, 2022

Jaydev Unadkat doesn’t think lack of pace is an issue for him

One of the Twitter users took a dig at Unadkat’s lack of pace and asked him what pace he would bowl at if he is indeed given a chance to playtest cricket for India again. Answering to that, Unadkat said he would bowl at a pace that would get him wickets because one can get wickets at the international level despite not having an express pace.

Using his home ground in Saurashtra as an example, Unadkat insisted that the surface in Saurashtra doesn’t offer anything to the seam bowlers. It is very flat, but he has been able to get wickets even on that surface. If he can induce mistakes off the batsmen on a surface as flat as Saurashtra without express pace, there is no reason why he can’t do it at the international level.

At a pace which gets me wickets, even on the flat tracks at my home ground. If you want to see the numbers, keep a wider perspective and check all columns..! 😉🙌🏼 https://t.co/voQXZmt7Rc

— Jaydev Unadkat (@JUnadkat) January 4, 2022

Unadkat was actually given the opportunity to playtest cricket at a time when he was probably not ready for it, but now that he seems ready, he is struggling to catch the attention of the national selectors.