Yashasvi Jaiswal is not someone you want to be these days. Being labeled as a “one format specialist” would definitely make you feel more uncertain than ever because Indian cricket is always changing.
And that’s after being the only young cricket player in the generation following Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma who has demonstrated the ideal traits of an all-format regular. However, the fact that the rub of the green has always chosen to play hide-and-seek with the Bhadohi-born man each time India has gone for a significant white-ball assignment over the past two years cannot be a coincidence.
He had to concede in 2024 that the experience of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli on those corny American and Caribbean pitches was worth more. That was the T20 format.
After another seven months, Jaiswal would initially be included in the Champions Trophy 15, but he was once again rendered useless due to head coach Gautam Gambhir’s insistence that a fourth spinner was needed. That was the 50-over format.
Additionally, the selectors felt that the second wicketkeeper should also be an opener after Shubman Gill, who was thought to be India’s future all-format captain, was benched in the 20-over format. This led to the arrival of Ishan Kishan, who scored a century off 49 balls against Haryana in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy final.
The fact that Jaiswal had only a few days prior scored a 50-ball ton against the same opponents in a chase of about 230 didn’t faze anyone.
Even though Jaiswal scored a hundred in the national team’s most recent match against South Africa, he will once more be absent from an Indian ODI playing eleven on January 11 after another two and a half weeks. Shubman Gill, the regular ODI captain, will take his place this time.
He has enough years to make up for the opportunities he has lost and will turn 24 on Sunday, but he needs to be informed of his mistakes. Self-belief does suffer during these periods.
“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, arguably the best chairman of selectors in the last 30 years, responded when asked how he views it.
India prioritized Test cricket for the following six months after Jaiswal’s last Twenty20 International match in Sri Lanka in July 2024. Jaiswal was also asked to focus on red-ball cricket.
His past five T20I scores, all while starting the innings, were 93, 12, 40, 30, and 10. He also had a strike rate of nearly 200, which is in line with the current team’s strategy of attacking at all costs without concern for run volume.
“Nobody should leave a match winner out of the team,” Vengsarkar said in a forthright assessment.
Vengsarkar, who essentially forced a 19-year-old Virat Kohli into the Indian team in 2008, concurred with the current selection committee about Shubman Gill’s exclusion since he believes that a player’s current form is a major factor in choosing a certain player. However, he is also certain of who he would have chosen first, omitting 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.
Absence is not rewarded in the T20 format. The primary currency is rhythm, and visibility is important. Jaiswal slid out of sight while others remained in the white-ball loop, rotating between bilateral series and remaining recognizable to selectors. He was misdirected by the system, not because he failed.
“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 said.
Jaiswal is one of the best choices in the nation if performance, impact, and flexibility are the specified parameters.
WV Raman, a former India opener and highly regarded coach, believes that Jaiswal may have spoken with chairman of selectors Ajit Agarkar.
“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.
When asked what he would have advised Jaiswal if he had been the chairman of selectors, Vengsarkar had the final say.
“I wouldn’t have told him anything because I wouldn’t have dropped him in the first place.”
