Virender Sehwag has backed India batter Yashasvi Jaiswal to play all three formats. The southpaw is a Test regular for India, opening the batting with KL Rahul, but he has failed to cement his place in the white-ball teams. Jaiswal has already played 23 T20Is and four ODIs for India, but currently he is not part of any of the squads. In the one-dayers, India’s opening is packed with Shubman Gill and Rohit Sharma, while in the shortest format, Abhishek Sharma and Sanju Samson take the top two positions.
Given that Jaiswal is himself an opener, the player has got limited opportunities.
“But there is no space right now. Shubman Gill is the captain (in ODIs). 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 Cricbuzz.
In the four ODI matches that Jaiswal has played, he has scored 171 runs at an average of 57.00. His best score is 116 not out.
“See, he has come into the ODI team only because someone like Gill or Sharma wasn’t available. It was not like 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,” Sehwag said.
The former India opener pointed out that Ishan Kishan is also in contention alongside Jaiswal to cement his place in the ODI team.
“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.
