Yashasvi Jaiswal boasts an ODI batting average of 71.25. He owns two centuries in six matches. Yet he cannot break into India's 50-over team.
To former national assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate, the selection freeze makes zero sense. Speaking on the TalkSport Cricket Podcast, ten Doeschate tore into the team's ongoing reluctance to cap the left-hander in the white-ball format as the countdown to the 2027 World Cup tightens.
Doeschete did not mince words. "He is desperate to play ODI cricket as well. He doesn't get into the team, which is—it's crazy," ten Doeschate said. "It's ridiculous. There are some players we were chatting about yesterday who aren't in the team. He is so hungry to do well. Even when he gets runs but doesn't get a big one, the genuine disappointment in leaving runs out there, you can see it really hurts him."
Ten Doeschate, who worked closely alongside the squad before stepping down, conceded that Jaiswal often looks deceptively mortal during training drills. "One of those strange situations where he's actually not a great netter," he admitted. But game day tells a different story. Ten Doeschate pointed to the 2024 Test tour opener in Perth, where Jaiswal had looked shaky against short-pitched bowling in the practice nets before confronting Australia's frontline quicks in the middle.
Within the first three overs at Optus Stadium, Mitchell Starc dug in a 150 km/h lifter. Jaiswal did not flinch—he swiveled and pulled the pacer cleanly in front of square.
Jaiswal arrives in New Zealand carrying devastating touch. In the just-concluded three-match unofficial Test series against New Zealand A—which finished 0-0 after rain washed out the fourth day of the final game—the opener answered a lean start with pure authority. After making 17 and 5 in the opener and bagging a first-innings duck in the second, Jaiswal unleashed an unbeaten 155 in the second dig. He promptly followed it with 102 in the third fixture.
Padikkal, Jurel, and Jaiswal racked up four centuries between them on tour, while Sai Sudharsan and Washington Sundar bagged crucial middle-order overs. All eyes now shift to Wellington, where India clash with New Zealand in the first Test at the Basin Reserve on November 19 with World Test Championship final spots on the line.