You don't want to be Yashasvi Jaiswal these days. You would perhaps feel that you are caught in the middle of a constant state of flux that Indian cricket is and would probably be more unsure than ever after being pigeonholed as a "one-format specialist".
And that too after being the only young cricketer in the post-Rohit Sharma-Virat Kohli generation who has shown perfect qualities of being an all-format regular. Yet it can't be a mere coincidence that every time India has gone for a major white ball assignment in the last two years, the rub of the green has always decided to play hide and seek with him.
In 2024, he had to accept that Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma's experience on those tacky American and Caribbean tracks was valued more. That was the T20 format. Within another seven months, Jaiswal would first find himself in the 15 for the Champions Trophy, but then, on the insistence of head coach Gautam Gambhir that a fourth spinner was required, he once again became disposable. That was the 50-over format.
And when Shubman Gill, perceived as India's next all-format captain, was dumped by the wayside in 20-over format, the selectors suddenly felt that the second wicketkeeper should be an opener too. So in came Ishan Kishan, who smashed a 49-ball century against Haryana in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy final.
No one bothered that Jaiswal also scored a 50-ball ton against the same opponents in a chase of 230-odd only days before. And within less than 20 days, we will again find Jaiswal out of an Indian ODI Playing 11 come January 11 despite scoring a hundred in the national team's previous game against South Africa. This time, he will have to make way for regular ODI skipper Shubman Gill.
He will turn 24 on Sunday and has enough years to make up for the chances he is forced to miss, but he needs to be told where he is going wrong. These are times when self-belief does take a hit. "It is unfortunate that Yashasvi is being left out time and again for no fault of his. He has been in tremendous form across all formats of the game and I don't know what else he has to do to get into the team," Dilip Vengsarkar, perhaps the finest chairman of selectors in the last three decades, said.
He last played T20Is in Sri Lanka in July 2024, after which India prioritised Test cricket for next six months and Jaiswal was also asked to concentrate on red ball cricket. His last five T20I scores read 93, 12, 40, 30 and 10, all while opening the innings, and at a strike-rate of close to 200, conforming to current team's philosophy of attack at all costs without worrying about volume of runs.
"Nobody should leave a match winner out of the team," Vengsarkar said in a forthright assessment. If performance, impact and adaptability are the stated metrics, Jaiswal stands among the strongest candidates in the country.
Also read: Yashasvi Jaiswal becomes fifth Indian to score 600 or more runs in a Test series
Follow us
