Captain Jaydev Unadkat talks about how the team introspected, analysed individuals’ shortcomings, and implemented new ways of doing things to rescue a floundering campaign
Shashank Kishore07-Feb-2025Halfway into the 2024-25 Ranji Trophy season, Saurashtra were in danger of running out one of their worst campaigns in recent times.Four points in four games had left them near rock bottom. A win was far from sight, the knockouts seemed a distant dream. Yet, here they are three games later, having gone on an unreal run of three back-to-back bonus-point wins to set up a quarter-final clash at home against Gujarat.From being no-hopers, Saurashtra sense they are in with a real chance of doing something special: winning a third Ranji title in five years.Over the past week or so, captain Jaydev Unadkat has been thinking about what brought about their change in course. “Plenty,” he says. “At the end of the first half of the season, we asked ourselves some hard questions. Are we doing enough? That was possibly the biggest question staring at us. We probably got a bit carried away with our recent success.”I also felt with the average age of our team increasing, we needed to put in more effort now than we did five years ago [when they won in 2019-20] to replicate that success. Once this realisation dawned, the guys worked really hard.”Until eight years ago, Saurashtra were about their four superstars – Cheteshwar Pujara, Ravindra Jadeja, Sheldon Jackson and Unadkat. With Pujara and Jadeja largely unavailable, Jackson and Unadkat had to do the heavy lifting most times. That perception has changed since Unadkat took over as captain from Jaydev Shah in 2018-19.”Some years back, the talks were always about getting individual runs and keeping their place in the team,” Unadkat explains. “When I took over, I wanted everyone to play like a team. That involves being selfless a lot of times. That involves setting collective goals. That involves talking about team goals and caring about the team.”A happy team thinks about collective success. Obviously, you need individual talent. But for all of them to come together and put in a team effort, you’ve got to establish a culture where people don’t think about individual success alone. To make that a habit was a challenge. At the moment everyone in the team does that really well.”Many guys are now close to playing 100-plus first-class games. It means we’ve all been playing together for so much time. That can happen when there’s collective success, and unity and harmony. Previously, it was about being happy by being in the knockouts. Now it’s about reaching the knockouts anyhow, because that’s what we feel our standard is.”
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As the second leg of the Ranji season started in January, Unadkat and the team management weren’t looking at bonus-point wins or the equation. It was simply about playing and winning moments.”Thinking of bonus points and all that would’ve meant getting ahead of ourselves.” Unadkat says. “You are putting yourself under pressure about scoring big in the first innings or getting a wicket as soon as possible. I don’t think that gets the best out of people. We just talked about getting a result out of every game, and being able to show intent with both bat and ball.”
“When you prepare pitches where results are bound to come, it can go either way. That is not a shocker to anyone. Until a few years ago, there were a lot of draws and it was regarded as playing good cricket on a good pitch. It wasn’t exciting. You want matches where you get results.”Jaydev Unadkat
To achieve this, they had a relook at roles of individuals. They analysed their shortcomings, went down to minute details, like their manner of dismissals at certain times. They identified patterns, wired and rewired habits.”We needed to think out of the box,” Unadkat says. “We were all fairly comfortable in a setting, not allowing ourselves to explore facets of the game we didn’t know existed. Teams had begun to map us out.”For example, Chirag Jani was out twice to a bouncer, when his role was to dominate against spin on turning tracks [against Tamil Nadu and Railways]. That wasn’t the only mistake, it’s just one example.”As a bowling group, we weren’t incisive enough. The way we used to break partnerships till last season, I think that wasn’t happening in the first three games. So yes, we were honest that way. Especially me and Dharmendra [Dharmendrasinh Jadeja] being there, both of us having played since the last 10 years together.”We share a rapport where we have been very honest, where we can talk about just being not good enough amongst our bowlers. I feel when you put aside your egos, when people have played so many games, the only question is whether they are able to accept that they can still be weak in some areas. I think we did that really well this season.”So what did their out-of-the-box thinking prompt?”Arpit [Vasavada] never played a reverse-sweep until the last season. He started sweeping and reverse-sweeping comfortably against the spinners.”Everyone now knows that Sheldon hits the spinners down the ground, and opposition captains put those fielders there right away. He hasn’t really been able to be at his best in this season, but he started working on his game to pick other gaps.”Harvik [their top-scorer with 511 runs at 56.77] has been a revelation in the back half. The intent that he has shown right from ball one, I feel that has been a turning point. He didn’t start that way. Sometimes it’s just about showing that you want to be out there on the pitch and be positive and everyone else follows that.Ravindra Jadeja’s 12 wickets on his Ranji comeback took Saurashtra to victory against Delhi•PTI “Chirag, when he started his career, in the first half he was a batter who could bowl. In the last four-five years, since Covid, we first thought about batting him higher up the order. That’s because, honestly, we don’t have a lot of openers, except for Harvik. We haven’t been able to capitalise, so we obviously needed someone in the top order.”And Chirag [who is closing in on 500 runs for the season] used to face the second new ball most of the times at No. 6 or 7. So then that thought came as to why can’t we bat him higher. The way he has matured into being a prolific batter now, he probably can play in the team as a proper batter. He’s been playing since 2012-13, and didn’t have a hundred or five-for until 2019. Now, that confidence is there that he can hold his own purely as a batter.”Prerak Mankad is another player Unadkat feels doesn’t often get the credit because his name is unlikely to be on the top wicket-takers’ list. “Many times, Prerak being the fourth seamer, he gives me a lot of freedom,” he says. “I hold myself back and bowl shorter spells which allows me to bowl at a higher intensity. These guys have held things together.”
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In a way, the stars have aligned for Saurashtra. Their last two games were at home, where they made it clear that they would turn to spin to win. Against Delhi, the returning Ravindra Jadeja picked up a 12-for, while the other Jadeja – Dharmendrasinh – ran through Assam in the final group game.”No one should be embarrassed with the way they plan out to play to their strength,” Unadkat says. “Why would I want a flat pitch and not want a result out of it? If a team’s strength is spin, they’ve got to take that advantage. We played the same on a similar pitch against Tamil Nadu in the last season’s quarter-finals and lost.”When you prepare pitches where results are bound to come, it can go either way. That is not a shocker to anyone. Until a few years ago, there were a lot of draws and it was regarded as playing good cricket on a good pitch.”It wasn’t exciting. You want matches where you get results. For that, you have to have something in the pitch. You can’t demand a green track in Rajkot. That is not what it is known for. The weather here is not susceptible to that. The soil here is not susceptible to that.”Obviously, if the surface is poor, and I mean by that a lot of deviation in bounce, yes agreed [it’s taking the advantage too far], but the ball turning on a pitch from the start is not a poor pitch. We have to remove that from a lot of people’s mind nowadays.”Arpit Vasavada is closing in on 400 runs this season and Chirag Jani on 500•PTI
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Looking ahead to the knockouts and beyond, Unadkat wants to lead the change, in terms of being able to prepare the team for a transition. “Making them future-proof,” he says with a laugh. For when the likes of Pujara, Jackson, Unadkat, Jani and the others, who are in the back-end of their careers, will move on.”We often talk about the reality in a positive way,” he says. “It shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. At the same time no one should feel that they have been signalled that this is their end. Personally I feel we have guys who do understand their career graph. Because we have been playing with each other since so long that we can talk to each other with a lot of freedom. So, I don’t think that will be a problem for us.”But in general, yes, I can definitely say that just being honest about the realistic things that are coming does help a lot. And at the same time give [credit to] everything that people have achieved so far in their career – give all the respect and credit that they deserve.”Before that, Unadkat hopes they can have silverware to celebrate. “The mood is very much upbeat because the way we qualified this season itself has been exciting” he says. “You don’t need to do a lot when you qualify in this way. You believe that things will fall in place.”Obviously there will be some nerves when you play a knockout. But that’s why we have turned so well and then the last few seasons people are now looking forward to such pressure games, rather than being afraid or worried about them.”There’s a real belief within this group no matter what, even if we concede a lead at times, there’s a strong sense of belief that we can come back and win. And for that, honestly I can’t take the full credit. Because you need players, you need guys like Arpit, Cheteshwar, Dharmendra, Prerak, Sheldon. Even the youngsters for that matter who care about the team and who want the team to do well.”We’re ready, and we’ve got the momentum. Hopefully, come knockouts, we’ll be able to carry that forward into the Gujarat game and beyond.”