Jaydev Unadkat

A prodigious talent right from teenage days, Jaydev Unadkat has bloomed late with a strong 2017 IPL season making people to take notice of his improvement. He burst into the scene as a nippy left-arm pacer who could make the ball move both ways off the seam. Such was his talent that he spearheaded the Indian U19 bowling attack at the World Cup in 2010, following which the lucrative IPL contract came to him. Life was moving at terrific pace for young Unadkat who was even surprisingly blooded into India's Test squad for the tour of South Africa. The much anticipated debut happened subsequently but it was baptism by fire for him as he was sent on a leather hunt by the Protea batsmen.

There was a talk at that point that Unadkat was too raw for international cricket. He had the skills and also had started to develop plenty of variations for white-ball cricket. While he held his own in domestic cricket across formats, the left-armer struggled to click on the biggest stages. Unadkat didn't let this affect him though and continued to work hard on his game. His domestic game continued to improve, even as he switched teams in the IPL without really making any impact. The latest of the switches came for the temporary franchise Rising Pune Supergiant and he struck gold in the 2017 season. Unadkat was constantly picking wickets, both with the new ball and at the death.

The thing about Unadkat is that he seems to have finally gotten a grasp of his abilities and is honest enough to work on his weaknesses. His IPL exploits saw him featuring in India's T20I sides and has been a regular since his debut in the shortest format. Meanwhile, Unadkat has risen through the ranks as a red-ball bowler, having phenomenal Ranji Trophy seasons in 2018-19 and 2019-20, captaining Saurashtra with aplomb and also leading from the front. He has matured into a complete long-format bowler and perhaps, it's in Test cricket that Unadkat might finally realize his potential. He is still a very useful limited-overs bowler due to his ability to vary pace but he also has the tendency to overdo that, thereby making him predictable.