Jaipur, Dec 24: 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 the Bhadohi-born man.
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 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, hence in comes 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 another two and half weeks, we will again find Jaiswal out of an Indian ODI playing eleven come January 11 despite scoring a hundred in 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, told PTI when asked how he looks at it.
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 in 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.
Vengsarkar, who basically pushed a 19-year-old Virat Kohli into the Indian side back in 2008, however, agreed with current selection committee on Shubman Gill’s exclusion as he feels current form does play a huge role in picking a particular cricketer. But, he is also clear in his mind who would have been his first choice while excluding Gill.
“They are all excellent players but I am with selection committee when they judge players on basis of current form and fitness. Current form does play an important role in context of selection. And if you ask whom I would have picked instead of Gill, my choice would have been Jaiswal. He has proven time and again what a class performer he is and has always given the team kind of starts required these days,” said the former India skipper and a veteran of 116 Tests and 129 ODIs.
The T20 format doesn’t reward absence. Rhythm is the main currency, and visibility does matter.
While others stayed in the white-ball loop, rotating through bilateral series, staying familiar to selectors, Jaiswal slipped out of sight. Not because he failed, but because the system redirected him.
“You are bound to lose confidence if you are made to feel that you are not required in one format. I mean it will affect his confidence and this game is all about confidence. And confidence comes when you have performances backed by runs,” Vengsarkar didn’t hold back.
If performance, impact, and adaptability are the stated metrics, then Jaiswal stands among the strongest candidates in the country.
Former India opener and one of the most respected coaches, WV Raman, feels that chairman of selectors Ajit Agarkar must have had a chat with Jaiswal.
“Certain conversations can’t be revealed in public but now World T20 squad has been selected and one can’t do anything. Jaiswal will have to bide his time but I am confident that the kind of talent he is, he will play many more World Cups,” Raman said.
Vengsarkar had the last word when asked what he would have told Jaiswal had he now been the chairman of selectors.
“I wouldn’t have told him anything because I wouldn’t have dropped him in the first place,” Vengsarkar replied. (PTI)
