Former opener Gautam Gambhir has batted for Yashasvi Jaiswal’s inclusion in India’s squad for the 2024 edition of T20 World Cup.
Jaiswal, who caught everyone’s attention in the 2020 edition of U-19 World Cup, took the cricketing world by storm with his stunning exploits in the IPL 2023 season.
Playing for Rajasthan Royals, the southpaw slammed 625 runs from 14 innings at a strike rate of 163.61 with one century and five fifties. His IPL brilliance was just cheery on top of his already fabulous record in First-Class and List-A cricket.
Speaking on News18, Gambhir said that Jaiswal deserves a place in the Indian T20I side after his heroics in the IPL 2023 and the domestic arena.
"In India, the issue is that we take the 2 months of IPL so seriously that whoever does well we add him to the Indian team. Jaiswal has scored a double hundred in domestic cricket both in First Class and One-Day matches," Gambhir stated.
According to Gambhir, Jaiswal's success in the IPL is merely the "icing on the cake" following his double hundred in domestic cricket.
Soon after the IPL 2023 season, Jaiswal was named in India’s 16-member squad for the two-match Test series against the West Indies.
As it turned out, the 21-year-old repaid the faith of the selectors and the team management as he slammed 171 off 387 balls in India’s only innings in the first Test at Dominica.
For Gambhir, it is important for a player to prove his consistency in the domestic season and, thus, he warned against the tendency to select players for the Indian team based solely on their IPL performances.
However, Gambhir warned against the tendency to select players for the Indian team based solely on their IPL performances. He suggested that Singh should first prove his consistency in the domestic season before being considered for the national team.
"Rinku Singh's story is inspiring and he has performed well as well. But do not select anyone after one season. Let Rinku score runs in the domestic season and then return to IPL and score runs again and if he is consistent then you can think of adding him to the Indian team," Gambhir concluded.
