With all three of Bumrah, Shami and Umesh not around, India are set to pick a new-look pace attack for the two-match Test series, starting July 12.
The Indian pace attack for the forthcoming two-match Test series in the Caribbean at the start of a new cycle of the World Test Championship (WTC) will be posing a fresh outlook.
With ace speedster Jasprit Bumrah ruled out after injury, experienced pacer Mohammad Shami rested and an underfiring and declining Umesh Yadav dropped, the Indians are set to field two of new call-up Bengal quick Mukesh Kumar and comeback men Jaydev Unadkat and Navdeep Saini to make up their three-pronged pace battery alongside incumbent Mohammed Siraj.
Of these, while Mukesh with his prodigious ability to swing and Saini as an out-and-out speed merchant present promising options, premier off-spinner R Ashwin hinted, Unadkat with his experience and left-arm angle could be playing both the Test matches and build on his gains since making a return to the scene late last year.
Dropped after an uninspiring debut in his teens 12 years back during a trip to South Africa, Unadkat forced his way into the reckoning following great domestic performances for Saurashtra on the tour of Bangladesh last December and played the Dhaka Test, picking up three wickets.
The left-arm pacer, who provides flexibility to the attack with his ability to swing the ball both ways on seaming tracks and the variations to extract uneven bounce and grip on dry pitches with his cutters, couldn’t make the side for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in February-March and is coming back from an injury picked up at the sidelines of IPL 2023.
But Unadkat is likely to play both the Tests in Dominica and Trinidad and would be a shoo-in to also don the blue jersey during the three-match ODI series, for which he has been selected as one of the backup seamers in absence of Shami and Bumrah.
“There are a lot of new and exciting faces in the Indian camp. We have Mukesh Kumar, and I feel Jaydev Unadkat will get a good run in the series. It is a very exciting time for Indian cricket,” Ashwin said on his YouTube channel.
Unadkat has re-entered the Test set-up as a significantly matured prospect from the times he was hurried to replace lead quick Zaheer Khan in South Africa all those years back. The 31-year-old has bagged a whopping 382 first-class wickets in 101 matches at 22.41 apiece.
Partnering Unadkat and Siraj at the other end could be Mukesh, the rising Bengal right-arm medium pacer, who is making the Test trip to the Caribbean on the back of spectacular Ranji Trophy performances. The 29-year-old has a first-class average of 21.55 over 39 matches and 141 scalps.
