Former England cricketer David Lloyd backed captain Ben Stokes to come up with a plan to ensure young India opener Yashasvi Jaiswal doesn’t give his team a flying start. His words come ahead of the third Test between the two sides, which will be played in Rajkot from February 15.
England started the series well, winning the first Test in Hyderabad by 28 runs, but then Yashasvi Jaiswal with 209 in 1st innings and Shubman Gill with a century in the second innings, helped India win the second Test in Vizag by 106 runs to level the series 1-1.
After a 10-day break, the England team think tank of captain Ben Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum will plan for the dynamic duo of Jaiswal and Gill. And David Lloyd has suggested that England needle the India opener where he loves to thrive.
Jaiswal, who Bumble suggests has 'no weaknesses' has a tendency to go after the bowling and that's where the former English cricketer reckons, Ben Stokes should target the 22-year-old.
"Jaiswal is a dasher all right but he doesn't have an obvious weakness, so I would be thinking slightly outside the box and rather than bowling the left-arm spinner against him with the new ball, I would be tempted to persevere with the off-spinner, placing temptation in the deep. I would like to see England play on Jaiswal's ego a bit more," he wrote for The Daily Mail.
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"You need to keep your catchers around the bat in subcontinental conditions but you also need one or two fielders hovering in strategic positions where he likes to hit the ball," he added.
Lloyd cited how Stokes planned Shreyas Iyer’s dismissal in the Vizag Test. Iyer fell to Tom Hartley trying to hit a big shot and was caught by skipper Stokes. Lloyd is confident England can see off Jaiswal with something similar.
"Dangle him a carrot by posting a deep midwicket and a deep mid-off, but two-thirds rather than all the way back to the boundary. Recall the trap Stokes set for Shreyas Iyer in the second Test, when the England captain ran towards the rope to take a very good overhead catch," added Lloyd.
The third Test match will begin at the Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium on February 15.
