Sehwag believes Jaiswal has the talent to excel across all formats.
Former India opener Virender Sehwag believes Yashasvi Jaiswal will become a regular in the ODI setup once Rohit Sharma retires.
Sehwag emphasized that while Jaiswal has the talent to excel across all formats, he currently has to wait for his opportunities due to the lack of an available opening vacancy.
With Rohit and Shubman Gill establishing themselves at the top, Jaiswal's chances have been limited to instances where one of the senior players is unavailable.
The southpaw has already demonstrated his capability in the few ODI chances he's received, notably scoring an unbeaten century (116* off 121 balls) against South Africa in Visakhapatnam.
“But there is no space right now. Shubman Gill is the captain. 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 a Cricbuzz show.
“See, he has come into the ODI team only because someone like Gill or Sharma wasn’t available. It was not like that 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.
"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,” he explained.
Former cricketer Manoj Tiwary endorsed Sehwag’s views, stating that Yashasvi Jaiswal should be India's undisputed first-choice opener after the 50-over World Cup next year. Tiwary ranks Jaiswal's priority ahead of Sai Sudharsan, Ishan Kishan, and Devdutt Padikkal for the opening spot.
“He is number one in my list. After the World Cup next year, two players will retire. He can be chosen before, though. But if that doesn’t happen, then definitely after the retirement of those players, the first name will be that of Jaiswal. After that, the names you [the host] have taken, Sai Sudharsan, Ishan Kishan and Devdutt Padikkal. This should be the order,” Tiwary said on the same show.
Yashasvi Jaiswal has officially been named as the replacement for Virat Kohli in the India-Afghanistan three-match ODI series, slated to begin on June 13 in Dharamsala. However, it remains to be seen if the left-hander gets any chances in this series.