Jaydev Unadkat is out of reckoning for the first India-Bangladesh Test starting at Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium, Chattogram, on Wednesday, as the pacer has not managed to reach Bangladesh as yet. Making a comeback to the Indian Test side after 12 years, the Saurashtra pacer is still stuck in India.
The latest from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is that the 31-year-old pacer has not received his visa papers and the logistics department in the board is making efforts to transport him to Bangladesh. As of Tuesday, Unadkat is believed to be still at home in Rajkot.
Normally, the BCCI organises visas for all those players who could be potentially in the reckoning for selection so that any delay due to logistical issue is avoided. But in the case of Unadkat, obviously, a pre-booking was not done as his was a surprise and an unexpected selection. The left-arm pacer last played a Test way back in December 2010 and he may not exactly have been in the radar of the BCCI logistic department although he apparently was in the minds of the selection committee.
Unadkat’s absence could open the doors for Navdeep Saini but the team management is yet to make the final choice of the XI. It could be a toss-up between Saini and a third spinner, who could either be Saurabh Kumar, the left-arm spinner who is there as a back-up for Ravindra Jadeja and has also shown good form in the build-up to the Tests, or Kuldeep Yadav.
The XI, otherwise, would pick themselves with skipper KL Rahul and Shubman Gill as the openers, with the two pacers being Umesh Yadav and Mohammed Siraj and the two certain spinners will be Ravichandran Awhwin and Axar Patel. Only the 11th player is left for the last minute decision.