Jaydev Unadkat - embracing challenge from the front

The entire Saurashtra team, who had the likes of Cheteshwar Pujara, Sudeep Tyagi, Siddharth Trivedi and Jaydev Unadkat, was left dejected as Basant Mohanty hit the winning shot to deep mid-wicket of the Barabati Stadium. Odisha saved themselves from the embarrassment of losing a game to the bottom-placed team at the home venue but in a way, cricket changed for the team based out of the once-cricketing-hotbed of India, Rajkot. There started a tale of belief and determination that flew through the veins for Saurashtra's second consecutive final appearance in 2020 - their third final after relegation to the lower-tier in 2014-15. 

While discussing the role of Jaydev Unadkat in building this team, it is also important to take a look at various other factors that shaped Saurashtra Cricket as a whole. Jaydev Shah, the current president of Saurashtra Cricket Association and son of former SCA boss Niranjan Shah, was the longest-serving captain of a Ranji team in India, despite having despicable numbers to his name. Averaging 29.91 across 120 first-class cricket matches, it was surprising that Shah captained his state team in over 100 matches.

“Saurashtra cricket has come up in the last 10-12 years because of the individual brilliance that we have had,” Unadkat said. “I think players have been coming out having that talent. It’s not that the cricketing culture here is great, it’s just that the cricketing talent here is great and that is why the team has started doing well. That is when the team environment started building and we started believing that we are a strong team and we can beat other teams on the domestic circuit as well. 

“I think these are different eras now that I have taken over captaincy. There are some players who have been playing since the last 5-6 years while there are some that have just come up in the team or made their debut last year. So it’s a different era altogether. He (Jaydev Shah) did his job fairly well and I will do my job fairly well. As I said it is down to the cricketing talent that we have in our region,” the current skipper of the side added.

Not the fastest bowler around, Unadkat used his skill as a swing bowler to extract reverse swing from the surface. It might sound like the easiest process but a pacer knows the repercussions of bending the back for a minimum of five games in a season. Unadkat did that and much more with admirable clarity.

“Reverse swing does play a big role but it is not the only thing. I think it is only half of it. Since Rajkot is a batting surface the only motivation as a bowler is bending your back. If you cannot do that then you are not going to get wickets. So that is one thing that I have come to terms with. This is my home ground and I am going to play all my home games here till the end of my career. I will have to find ways and bend my back all the time and bowl number of wicket-taking deliveries than on any other bowler-friendly surface because the more wicket-taking deliveries you bowl here, the chances are that much more. I think it has got the best out of me in many ways.”

With due respect to their achievements, it is a fact worth noting that the other leading pacers in the country - the likes of Dhawal Kulkarni, Vinay Kumar, Pankaj Singh, Ashoke Dinda, Basant Mohanty, and Shardul Thakur - have done that in more helpful pitches than Rajkot. For the majority of his career, Unadkat faced the exact opposite of it but does that take a toll on his confidence? For the high-on-adrenaline Jaydev, it doesn’t matter a bit. Rather, it acts as strong motivation to put in the hard yards in, on a regular basis.

“It has only been motivating factor for me and that is the way that I have started seeing it from the past 5-6 years. I have been learning the challenge. There is nothing wrong in having to face a bigger challenge than someone else and still succeed. The confidence level is a notch higher when you know you are better than the others now that you are actually finding ways to get wickets on difficult wickets. So I think all of that is now imbibed in my game and I don’t feel demotivated or frustrated about it at all.”