Changes in the generation of Indian cricket teams indicate that Yashasvi Jaiswal has all the prospects to become a successful player. Having tormented the England players with a fabulous 700-run performance in the Test series, the rising talent was not in great form during the IPL and, hence, was benched during the T20 World Cup for the Indian team.
Although Jaiswal was (dropped from the T20I team after poor shows in the tri-series against Bangladesh and New Zealand, as well as in the home T20I series against West Indies), his T20I career got a new lease of life after the chief protagonists Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma bid farewell to the shortest format.
Currently, the 21-year-old left-hander, with the addition of Shubman Gill, is being prepared to become the opening batsman of the Indian team for the 2026 edition of the T20 World Cup.
Jaiswal got his chance in the team on the Zimbabwe tour, smashing an unbeaten 93 in the 4th T20I. Taking that confidence to the Sri Lanka T20Is, Jaiswal was consistently Pietrus motion in the first T20I at Pallekele, smacking 40 with five fours and two sixes before the Powerplay.
But former Indian cricketer Ashish Nehra pointed out that Jaiswal might have never got a chance had Kohli and Sharma been around on the field. Even in a post-match interview, the pride of the Indian cricket team, Nehraa, seriously twitted that Jaiswal’s stroke play would have remained restricted in Indian nets only if both these stalwarts had been present.
These remarks left Jaiswal a little stunned, and the youngster’s attitude and facial expressions painted a picture of a deep thinker.
Jaiswal was expected to open with Rohit Sharma in the T20 World Cup; however, the management shifted the Rohit-Kohli opener combination due to Kohli’s regaining form in IPL 2024.
Thus, although the experiment did not yield the desired outcome, Kohli’s match-winning 76 in the World Cup final against South Africa was a perfect ending, as the outstanding batter said goodbye to T20Is.
Likely, the new change in leadership with a new coach, Gautam Gambhir, and captain, Suryakumar Yadav, will bring in a new dawn for Jaiswal and the Indian team. The audience continues to have high expectations of the young, talented player as he and Gill are expected to build the generation of T20I.
