IND vs AFG: Why India need to find a spot to accommodate Yashasvi Jaiswal at the top? | Cricket News

One of the reasons that has seen India struggle in T20Is is a lack of an X-factor batsmen in the top three, which has led to them not making the most out of the powerplay overs. The batting powerplay is one area where it hurted India the most in successive T20 World Cups. The call was to reboot India’s T20 team with youngsters and adopt a bolder approach with the bat and since that semi-final loss against England in Adelaide, selectors and the team management went about identifying the right personnel.To shrug off the sameness in the batting order, they found the answer in Yashasvi Jaiswal, whose fearless approach injected a new lease of life into India’s timid approach in the powerplays.As another T20 World Cup is just six months away, the return of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli into the fold not just casts doubts over the aggressive approach. But it could also lead to Jaiswal losing his spot in the XI, as India seem to be inclined to Rohit partnering with Shubman Gill at the top.
While Kohli has made himself unavailable for the first T20I due to personal reasons, which opens the door for Jaiswal to play on Thursday, India’s think tank have a huge call to make in the coming days.
Having chosen to invest in Jaiswal, who fits perfectly into the new batting blueprint they have followed, that the selectors have brought back Rohit and Virat seems to show a lack of vision and clarity so close to a World Cup. Having found success with their bolder for 14 months, India have got more conservative at the final stretch.

While there are indications that Rohit and Virat’s spots for the World Cup are not yet locked, a couple of good knocks against Afghanan in this series could change all of it. In fact, it would shut the door on Jaiswal, who has added plenty of firepower at the top and has integrated into the international fold after a sizzling performance in the IPL.
And on Thursday, JaiswaL will get another opportunity to remind India what he is capable of. Unlike Rohit and Gill, Jaiswal has better returns in the powerplay and is single-handedly responsible for putting the opposition under pressure from the word go. Sample these numbers: In 13 innings, Gill’s strike rate in the powerplays is only 114.61. In 109 innings, Rohit’s strike rate in the first six overs is 134.24, and Kohli’s is 116.75.
But in 14 innings, Jaiswal has scored 292 runs in the powerplay at a strike-rate of 158.69, which could well be the difference in the end. And India has never lost in eight games, where he has crossed the 20-run mark. Out of those eight matches, India has scored 50 or more six times in the powerplay with Jaiswal himself scoring a fifty once.
In the last T20I they played against South Africa, despite losing Gill and Tilak Varma cheaply, Jaiswal ensured India ended up with 62/2 in the powerplay. (AP)
When a top-order batsman gives such a start in the powerplay, nearly half the battle is won with the bat, and it only allows the middle-order to play with much more freedom without worrying about run-rate. The brand of T20 cricket that the Indian team has been aspiring to master for the past couple of years comes naturally to Jaiswal, the left-handed batsman, who is capable of providing the knockout punch in the first six overs.
Why should Jaiswal be in the playing XI?
One significant change that came with India’s aggressive approach was they believed 200-plus totals should be the norm when batting first. For such a module to work, it is essential for India to bat in the top gear from first over till the last as against pressing the accelerator only in the last five overs. The same holds true when they are chasing big totals as well. For India to go all the way in the T20 World Cup, they cannot afford to have any weak links.

However, should they go in with Rohit, Gill and Kohli — who are anchor material in T20s — as their top three, they will be short on firepower and will also not have a left-hander at the top. Apart from making the most out of the fielding restrictions, Jaiswal has also shown he can also manipulate the field easily ond find the gaps onec the powerplay is over.
In the last T20I they played against South Africa, despite losing Gill and Tilak Varma cheaply, Jaiswal ensured India ended up with 62/2 in the powerplay. In the first T20Is against Australia that was played just after the ODI World Cup, chasing 209, India got home with one ball to spare. Although it was Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav and then Rinku Singh in the backend who played a pivotal role in India’s win, the kick-start was given Jaiswal with his blazing 8-ball 21 at the top.
In the second match of the same series, while batting first, Jaiswal scored fifty (53 runs in 25 balls), with India scoring 77 for 1 inside the powerplay.

Since the next T20 World Cup will be played in the Caribbean and the USA, let’s go back to India’s tour of the West Indies in July. Playing only his second match, Jaiswal smoked an unbeaten 84 off 51 balls as India chased down the target of 179 runs in 17 overs.
In IPL 2023, Jaiswal scored 625 runs in 14 innings. It was the most an uncapped Indian player in an IPL season, bettering Ishan Kishan’s 516 runs in 2020. Jaiswal’s tally is also the most for uncapped batsmen overall, as he pipped Shaun Marsh’s 616 runs in the inaugural edition. During the season, he scored one century and five fifties, including one where he took only 13 balls, the fastest in the hory of the IPL.

The sample of Jaiswal’s batting must be significantly less when one compares it with the likes of Rohit and Kohli, but Jaiswal certainly has that impact that the Indian cricket team has been lacking at the top order since the retirement of Virender Sehwag.