West Indies coach Daren Sammy was full of praise for India’s young batting sensation Yashasvi Jaiswal, who played a remarkable knock of 171 on his Test debut against the Caribbean side in Dominica last month.
Talking about Jaiswal’s strong foundation, Sammy lauded the BCCI and the standard of First-Class cricket in India along with the ‘resources’ that have facilitated the development of players such as Hardik Pandya, Shubman Gill and Sanju Samson.
However, Sammy took a cheeky dig at India’s ICC trophy drought. It's been a decade since the Men in Blue last won a global title. After MS Dhoni led the side to a Champions Trophy triumph in 2013, India have lost as many as four ICC event finals and bowed out in the semi-finals on numerous occasions.
“When you the see the players they’ve been able to produce, Hardik Pandya, (Yashasvi) Jaiswal all the guys they produced over the years but you must also remember who’s winning the international tournaments," Sammy said while speaking exclusively to Vimal Kumar on the latter’s YouTube channel.
“Like I said, Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Sanju Samson who didn’t play, he’s been performing. Hardik Pandya who’s young but he is seasoned in the team. Again, it speaks of the system they have that keeps producing these youngsters," he added.
“Jaiswal has 1800 runs in First Class cricket in nine matches, nine hundreds and then he comes to Dominica in his debut game and he looks like he belonged at the international level. That comes from the standard of First Class cricket in India that is allowing the youngsters that when they come in to be ready for international cricket," Sammy further stated.
In the ongoing West Indies tour, India won the Test and ODI series but they are trailing by 2-1 in the five-match T20I series.
The penultimate T20I will be played in Florida on Saturday (August 12).