India will be starting their preparations for the World Cup with a three-match ODI series against the West Indies. Some of the key players are still injured, but the Men in Blue have named a full-strength squad for the series. Interestingly, the pace bowling attack wears a new look with the likes of Umran Malik, Mukesh Kumar and Jaydev Unadkat making it to the squad.
Unadkat, being the left-arm pace option, is set to get a chance in the playing XI of the ODI series against the West Indies. He has a great chance to make it to the World Cup squad as well as India lack a quality left-arm pace option at the moment. His direct competition could've been with Arshdeep Singh. But he has been picked in the squad for the Asian Games that directly clashes with the World Cup. For the unversed, Unadkat didn't pick up a single wicket in the recently concluded two-match Test series against West Indies.
According to PTI, Unadkat could be carried to the World Cup if he manages to slip in decent performances in the near future in white-ball cricket. He last featured in the 50-over format for India way back in 2013 and if indeed, he is picked in the first ODI against the West Indies, Unadkat will play after almost 10 years in the format. He was recalled to the ODI set up for the Australia series in March but didn't get a game.
This makes it clear that the Saurashtra cricketer was in the plans since long but lack of ODI cricket led to him waiting for some more time. As far as his ODI career is concerned, Unadkar has so far picked up eight wickets in seven matches at an average of 26.12 with 4/41 being his best figures.
India squad for West Indies ODIs: Rohit Sharma (C), Shubman Gill, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Sanju Samson, Ishan Kishan, Shardul Thakur, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Mukesh Kumar, Jaydev Unadkat, Mohammed Siraj, Umran Malik.
