Former Indian cricketer reveals reason for playing Jaydev Unadkat over Kuldeep Yadav against Bangladesh

Jaydev Unadkat (Image source: Twitter)

India and Bangladesh face off in the second Test in Mirpur on December 22, Thursday. One of the big talking points was even before the match started, which was about Kuldeep Yadav and why he was benched despite his Player of the Match performance in the first Test at Chattogram where he scored 40 off 114 balls with 5 fours and then picked up 8 for 113 with the ball.

The centerstage slowly changed from Kuldeep Yadav to Jaydev Unadkat through the course of the game. Jaydev was playing a Test match for the first time since 2010 for India since he had a debut to forget against South Africa. Now Jaydev is older, wiser and skipper of his domestic side Saurashtra. When the left-arm-pacer got Zakir Hasan out with a rising delivery which gave him his maiden Test wicket. Life had come full circle for him.

India's change was made due to the change in surface

Wasim Jaffer at the end of the day talked about the debatable call and he said that he felt really happy when he got picked for the Indian Team and ended up playing a Test after a gap of 12 years. He also talked about how he changed Saurashtra cricket by leading them to title-winning campaigns in the Ranji and Vijay Hazare Trophy.

Jaffer said that Unadkat had reaped the rewards of the hard work that he put in over a decade. He talked about how Unadkat changed the game for India by getting the big wicket of Mushfiqur Rahim. Unadkat had also used his experience and tried different things to get a favourable outcome. He contributed to India’s cause on Day 1.

India picked Unadkat instead of Kuldeep as there was potentially some moisture in the surface and the pitch also had a tinge of green. There was no way Axar Patel or Ravichandran Ashwin could have been dropped so it was Kuldeep who had to warm the bench in the end. Bangladesh were kept down to just 227 after being 213-5 at one stage in the 1st innings.