Yashasvi Jaiswal might be losing touch at the worst possible time

Yashasvi Jaiswal couldn’t have timed it any worse. 

Over the last year, Jaiswal has emerged as India’s prime option for being an all-format gun. Not only did he show his aggressive version in the T20Is (average of 33.46 and SR 161.93), he also put on a masterful display against England in the five-match Test series. 

It was a showing that opened a different side of Jaiswal’s world, averaging a staggering 89 against England’s Bazball. It seemed like he couldn’t do anything wrong before the world crashed. 

On March 24 (Wednesday), Jaiswal continued from where he left last season, with 24 off just 12 balls. Everything was normal in the pink city, but then the 22-year-old’s form started nosediving, with scores of 5 (DC), 10 (MI) and a duck (RCB). 

With just 39 runs from four games, Jaiswal’s form was the talk of the town. 

You could ignore these numbers if it were anyone but Jaiswal. He averaged under ten (9.75) and also astonishingly only struck at 144.4, with just 1.75 boundaries every game.

"Jaiswal has had a brilliant year or two not just for RR but also in international cricket, two bad innings do not make anyone a bad player, we know his quality and we just want him to bat long,” Kumar Sangakkara further backed the opener. 

When he walked out to bat on April 10 (Wednesday) against Gujarat Titans, the focus was on him after his opening partner Jos Buttler had found his hands with a century against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB). 

He couldn’t have asked for a better match-up, given that he was about to face Umesh Yadav, a man who struck zero times in the powerplay last year. Even this season, he only had three wickets against his name. Jaiswal was set up to score big if you put all of this together. 

Jaiswal started circumspectly, and it felt like the more he batted, the more he was putting himself in a position of ascendancy, ready to take on the bowlers. His first-scoring shot, a four, had a cracking sound, and that could have been the ideal spark en route to finding his touch. 

But 14 deliveries later, his innings fell flat on its face, scoring just 24 off 19 balls. The worrying part is that Jaiswal might have a (short) problem, with four of his dismissals off the length or back of a length area.

In particular, it is the back of a length area that has been proven to be Jaiswal’s kryptonite this season. Whenever the ball has been in that particular spot, the southpaw has only averaged 5.7 and has been dismissed three times, scoring 17 off 14.

Since his IPL debut, Jaiswal has had it tough against left-arm pacers, with nine of his dismissals against the bowling type, against whom he averages 26.6 but at least struck at 163.7, taking on the bowlers. Anything that was back of a length or short he punished them with disdain, scoring at 208.3 (back of a length) and 288.8 against anything short. 

But this year, all of that worked in his favour, has gone terribly wrong. 

It was yet again the case when Umesh Yadav dismissed him, extending the dismissals to three in that region. 

The last thing Jaiswal would have hoped is for his poor form to come close with the T20 World Cup selection around the corner. 

To make things worse, Virat Kohli’s rapid start to the 2024 season could prove to be a bigger thorn in Jaiswal’s rosy start to his career.

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