Watch: Jaydev Unadkat's unplayable ball wallops Bangladesh opener, gives him maiden Test wicket after 12 years, 6 days

It took 12 years, six days and 179 deliveries for Jaydev Unadkat to get his first Test wicket. He had gone wicketless in the 26 overs that he bowled on his Test debut way back in December 2010 against South Africa in Centurion and after that, he is playing his second Test on December 22, 2022, against Bangladesh in Mirpur. It is the longest wait between two Test matches by an Indian both in terms of years and Test matches missed and the second-longest in the world behind England's Gareth Batty. Unadkat missed 118 Tests between December 2010 and December 2022. Only Batty has missed more Tests -145 - between 2005-16. For India, Dinesh Karthik had missed 87 Tests before making a comeback in 2018.

Unadkat, however, would say, it was worth the wait. He had big shoes to fill. The guy - Kuldeep Yadav - he replaced in the India XI for the second Test, had returned with his career-best figures of 8 for 113, registered his highest Test score of 40 and was adjudged Player of the Match in India's 188-run win. But Unadkat had his own story to tell.

INDIA VS BANGLADESH LIVE SCORE, 2nd TEST

The tireless left-arm pacer started off hitting the perfect areas, troubling both the Bangladesh left-handed opening batters Najmul Hossian Shanto and Zakir Hasan. Introduced into the attack in the 9th over of the Bangladesh innings after the hosts opted to bat first, Unadkat gave away just 1 run in his first over in Test cricket in 12 years.

In his next over, he beat the outside edge of Zakir Hasan. He started his third over by beating Shanto's outside edge twice. There was an event on every ball that Unadkat bowled. After peppering the outside edge for his first three overs, Unadkat got one to jag back sharply from a length in his fourth and rapped Shanto on the front pad. There was a huge appeal but was turned down. After a brief discussion with Rishabh Pant, India's stand-in captain KL Rahul decided against taking a review and it was the right call, the movement would have taken the ball away from the left stump, replays showed. But Unadkat was getting close.

A couple of balls later, he used his height and high release point to extract an awkward bounce from the good-length area to get Hasan in a tangle. He failed to control his attempted cut shot and gloved it up in the air. Rahul, standing in the slip cordon took an easy catch.

Watch Video: Jaydev Unadkat's maiden Test wicket after 12 years, 6 days and 179 balls later

Unadkat had his both arms in the air, closed his eyes and let it sink in. It was a long wait and it finally came. In that brief moment, all those lonely days of toiling hard in domestic cricket must have trickled in front of him. They all seemed worth it.