During Thursday’s IPL 2026 match against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH), Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) captain Ajinkya Rahane never looked comfortable against Jaydev Unadkat‘s pace variations, and eventually, the sharply disguised slower one put Rahane out of his misery on the night.
Unadkat’s 115.3 cutter dug into the surface, took eternity to reach the KKR skipper, who could not get any timing on the shot, and ended up chipping the ball in the air, which Eshan Malinga collected, running in from the deep. Unadkat would return later in the game and, with his cutters, take two more wickets to help SRH register their first win of the season.
The 34-year-old has played a crucial part in SRH’s bowling plans since coming into the setup in 2024, bowling his pace-off deliveries at different phases of the game. Until Pat Cummins becomes available, he has to spearhead the inexperienced bowling attack.
“Like Pat, he can bowl in all stages of the game, and that’s incredibly important,” head coach Daniel Vettori said about Unadkat’s role.
DONE AND DUSTED! ✅
🎥 Jaydev Unadkat finishes in style and @SunRisers have their ✌️points 🧡
Scorecard ▶️ https://t.co/iCMFpDudP7#TATAIPL | #KhelBindaas | #KKRvSRH pic.twitter.com/54FBHNcWAz
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) April 2, 2026
“He’s a bit of a rock for us with Pat out. You can see that Ishan uses him in a myriad of ways. Just to have that sort of bowler, and he’s performed for the last 10 games for us, he’s been incredibly impressive,” Vettori conceded.
Journeyman cricketer
Although Unadkat is the leading wicket-taker in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy with 128 scalps, he has been a journeyman in IPL, representing eight franchises, and things have not always gone his way. “So in the earlier days, you know, he had a lot of speed and everything. But he knew that if he wanted to survive in this competitive world, he had to execute all the deliveries. So if you want to bowl that outside the off-stump yorker, you need to execute that well in the match. And that’s what, over the years, he has tried to work on, and he has done really well in executing the deliveries right,” Saurashtra head coach Niraj Odedra told The Indian Express.
And that perfection in execution has come from the tough grind in the drills he does in the off-season, when no one is watching, practicing “target bowling.” Explaining the method, Niraj said: “You walk on your own, you have somebody just looking at what you bowl and just analysing all those things. You don’t have batsmen or anything. But you go into match mode. You make sure that you do all the drills which are specific to the match situation. That’s the best part.”
It is not just his bowling skills. Unadkat has been one of the most successful captains in domestic cricket, winning the Ranji Trophy twice with Saurashtra in 2019/20 and 2023/24. Niraj attributed Unadkat’s personality trait of being self-aware, making him good at the leadership role and his determination to take junior players under his wing to see progress in them too.
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Jaydev Unadkat of Sunrisers Hyderabad celebrates the wicket of Ajinkya Rahane of Kolkata Knight Riders during Match 6 of the TATA Indian Premier League 2026 between Kolkata Knight Riders and Sunrisers Hyderabad at Eden Gardens , Kolkata, India, on April 2, 2026.
“Chetan Sakariya was struggling with his injury and a few other things, but Unadkat fully backed him. He told him what’s required of Sakariya, what sort of player Sakariya is. Constantly, he was with me, feeding all the good ideas and all the experience he has. And that helped Sakariya to come back from injury in a better way. The more you see Chetan Sakaria in the coming years, it’s thanks to Jaydev that he’s been talking and guiding him,” shared Niraj.
And he has not been too different in his orange jersey either. Unadkat is the bridge between the domestic players who are finding their feet and the leadership group at SRH. “He has a really good understanding of domestic players around the country, so we utilise him a lot in terms of his information around some players that maybe the coaching staff hasn’t seen a lot of, but because he’s played so much domestic cricket, he’s a valuable resource for us,” Vettori said.
It has not been an easy journey for Unadkat, although he has had immense success at domestic cricket; the same has not transpired in international cricket, with him being in and out of the side. But he always continues to go back to the grind of domestic cricket, doing the non-fancy job of putting in the hard yards in front of the empty stadiums. “Sometimes it’s the passion. So, regardless of whether he gets a chance to play for India or not, the motivation he always has is that, first of all, I love this game,” said Niraj with glee.
And coming into the season, Unadkat discussed the same with his Saurashtra Head Coach. More than anything, he wishes to play all the games for SRH this season. “For him, it was first to make sure that he consistently plays for the team…they (SRH) were runners-up a couple of years back. Everybody wants to win the trophy for the team. But I think for him, it was very important that he played all the games,” concluded Niraj in a hopeful tone.
