Gambhir on Jaiswal after his maiden ODI Century, believes that Sky is the limit the moment Jaiswal figures out his ODI tempo.
India head coach Gautam Gambhir has expressed strong confidence in Yashasvi Jaiswal’s long-term potential following the opener’s maiden century in one-day internationals on Saturday.
Although Jaiswal is already a fixture in India’s Test side, his exposure to the 50-over format has been limited, with just four appearances so far. He was handed this opportunity in the series against South Africa after regular opener and skipper Shubman Gill was ruled out through injury.
“In [the] one-day format, you need to know the template you want to play,” Gambhir said after India beat South Africa by nine wickets. “When you come into white-ball cricket from red-ball cricket, you think you have to bat aggressively. But you don’t need to bat aggressively in one-day cricket, because you can split it into 30 overs and 20 overs.
“If you play 30 overs like one-day cricket – and the quality that Jaiswal has, if he can bat till 30 overs – there is no doubt he will be close to a hundred. Even after that, you have 20 overs left, which you can look at as a T20 match. It is only about finding a template. This was just Jaiswal’s fourth game. The moment he figures out which tempo he needs to bat in one-day cricket, the sky is the limit.”
Jaiswal batted through the chase, first in the company of Rohit Sharma in a commanding 155-run opening stand, and then alongside Virat Kohli in an unbroken 116-run second-wicket partnership that took India home with ease. The assurance with which he adapted to different phases of the innings underlined both his temperament and versatility.
His hundred also continued a theme in the series of squad players making the most of their opportunities. Earlier, Ruturaj Gaikwad — another non-regular in India’s ODI set-up — had stepped up with a century of his own, batting at No. 4 despite being a specialist top-order player. Together, their performances have strengthened India’s bench depth and given the team management encouraging options heading into future ODI assignments.
“Someone like Rutu, who’s batted out of position… He’s a quality player, we all know. We wanted to give him an opportunity in this series because of the kind of form he was in with India A. And he actually grabbed that opportunity with both hands, getting a hundred in the second game. And when we were under pressure actually – we were 40 for 2 – and then getting that kind of a hundred was proper quality.”
“Look, we try and give [new players] opportunities wherever we can. Because we still want a reasonable group… probably around 20-25 players in that group before the World Cup.
“But once your captain and vice-captain [Iyer in ODIs] is back, obviously they are your starters. But yes, what they [Jaiswal and Gaikwad] had to do [with their opportunities], they have done that. And hopefully whenever it is possible, we will try and give them opportunities.
“And more importantly, I think they need to keep themselves motivated because they should be ready whenever they get that opportunity. “