Former India opener Virender Sehwag believes Yashasvi Jaiswal will be given a place in the ODI team as an opener once Rohit Sharma retires next year after the World Cup in South Africa and Zimbabwe. Sehwag believes Jaiswal is an all-format player but there has to be a vacancy for him to begin with.
Jaiswal has played four ODIs so far and has a century to his name. It came in his last ODI innings last year against South Africa at Visakhapatnam. He scored 116 not out off 121 balls. Sehwag says Jaiswal has great potential in white-ball cricket, but he has to wait for his chances – at least for now.
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“But there is no space right now. Shubman Gill is the captain. Rohit Sharma is playing. As soon as Rohit Sharma retires, you will see Jaiswal playing white-ball and one-day cricket as well. Ruturaj Gaikwad might be a competitor of his, though. But if you take three openers, you will definitely see Jaiswal among them,” Sehwag said on a Cricbuzz show.
“See, he has come into the ODI team only because someone like Gill or Sharma wasn’t available. It was not like that he got the chance and then he didn’t perform. He performed very well when he got the chance. It was not like he was dropped after not performing. He was in the team because someone wasn’t playing.
“Ishan Kishan is not part of one-day cricket either. He has made a double hundred in ODIs, the fastest. So he is also a player who is in the reckoning. But I would definitely like to see Jaiswal in one-day cricket and T20Is, I mean in all three formats. He is a player who can play all three formats,” Sehwag explained.
Manoj Tiwary agrees!
Former India cricketer Manoj Tiwary, also part of the show, was on the same page with Sehwag and said that after the World Cup next year, Jaiswal, as per him, should be India’s number one choice as an opener. That he should be chosen ahead of Sai Sudharsan, Kishan and Devdutt Paddikal.
“He is number one in my list. After the World Cup next year, two players will retire. He can be chosen before, though. But if that doesn’t happen, then definitely after the retirement of those players, the first name will be that of Jaiswal. After that, the names you [the host] have taken, Sai Sudharsan, Ishan Kishan and Devdutt Padikkal. This should be the order,” Tiwary said.
The three-ODI India-Afghanistan series kicks off later today in Dharamsala and it will be interesting to see if Jaiswal, picked as Virat Kohli’s injury replacement, gets any chances to strengthen his case.
