Jaydev Unadkat, who earned a call-up to the Indian Test squad after 12 years for the Bangladesh tour, is still stuck in India and unlikely to feature in the opening Test, starting Wednesday (December 14) in Chattogram.
According to a Cricbuzz report, the left-arm pacer has not received his visa papers yet and the logistics department in the BCCI is making efforts to transport him to Bangladesh.
The report further added that Unadkat is still at his home in Rajkot as of Tuesday (December 13).
Usually, the BCCI organises visas for all those players who might be in the selection reckoning so that any delay because of logistical issue can be avoided.
In the case of Unadkat, however, the board didn’t make a pre-booking as his call-up was totally unexpected. His only Test appearance came in 2010 while he last played for India in 2018. Thus, the 31-year-old may not exactly have been in the radar of the BCCI logistic department.
In Unadkat's absence, right-arm pacer Navdeep Saini might get a chance in the playing XI or it could be a toss-up between the latter and a third spinner, who could either be Kuldeep Yadav or Saurabh Kumar.
Otherwise, the bowling attack would pick themselves, with Umesh Yadav and Mohammed Siraj being the two pacers and Ravichandran Ashwin and Akshar Patel being the first-choice spinners.
India Squad: Shubman Gill, KL Rahul(c), Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant(w), Akshar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Shardul Thakur, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Kuldeep Yadav, Srikar Bharat, Jaydev Unadkat, Navdeep Saini, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Saurabh Kumar
(With Cricbuzz inputs)
