Making his Test comeback after 12 years, India left-arm quick Jaydev Unadkat took his maiden wicket in the format during in the second Test match against Bangladesh and said that he visualised the historic moment maybe 1000 times over the years.
Unadkat played his second Test match after his debut match in South Africa in 2010. The long gap of 12 years and 2 days makes this the longest interval between Test appearances for any player in the 21st century.
The left-arm quick missed 118 Test matches in this time frame. Only England's off-spinner Gareth Batty, who made a comeback in 2016 in Bangladesh after previously appearing in a Test match in 2005, has missed more Test matches (142 matches).
The closest any Indian has gotten to this is when Dinesh Karthik made a Test comeback in 2018, eight years after he played a Test, missing 87 Test matches in between. "I have visualised this moment maybe 1000 times in between the first Test I played and now.
I didn't get a wicket back then and that was the talk everytime people talked about me getting an opportunity again for the Indian team," Unadkat told BCCI.tv. "I actually missed playing with the red ball.
Honestly, it wasn't just about getting that Test recall, but it was also about getting to play the Ranji Trophy season," he added. On his Test comeback, Unadkat picked 2 for 50 and helped India bowl out Bangladesh for 227 on the opening day of the second Test.