Let’s take a brief break from talking about Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma’s T20I careers. Let us instead concentrate on Yashasvi Jaiswal, who is a left-handed opening batsman who is here to stay.
He highlighted it on Sunday at the Holkar Stadium in Indore, with a magnificent performance that should end the argument about India playing with at least one starting slot in the Caribbean and the US this T20 World Cup.
Jaiswal hit 68 off just 34 balls (5×4, 6×6) as India rallied for 173 in the second Twenty20 International, leading the team to a six-wicket victory and an insurmountable 2-0 lead in the three-match series against Afghanistan. Another left-handed hitter who was equally good was Shivam Dube.
The young players’ performance on a day when Kohli went after a blistering 16-ball 29 and Sharma was out for a second straight duck showed that, with the right support, they are capable of carrying India’s ambitions at the world championship.
Shubman Gill was substituted on Sunday because of Jaiswal’s knock, which highlighted why the player missed the first game because of a sore groin. Rahul Dravid, the coach, will be happy with himself for supporting Jaiswal early in the series.
Afghanistan’s highest-ever T20I score of 172 against India was achieved because to a 35-ball 57 from Gulbadin Naib, who was moved up to the No. 3 spot. For the second time in the match, India chose to bowl first, starting with seamers Arshdeep Singh and Mukesh Kumar and switching to leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi in the third over. Bishnoi made an early impact, catching Rahmanullah Gurbaz mid-field.
Naib took on Bishnoi too. Naib took advantage of everything that was loose to score 14 runs off the first three balls of the fifth over. When Bishnoi offered width, a short ball was pulled through midwicket for six, and the cover region was peppered.
But Axar Patel succeeded in striking just as Afghanistan appeared to be taking the lead. The left-arm spinner bowled a brilliant bit, flipping the ball up and thwarting Ibrahim Zadran’s effort to hit an off-stump drive.
