Shaun Pollock questions Yashasvi Jaiswal’s preparation after below-par series against South Africa

Former South African captain Shaun Pollock believes Yashasvi Jaiswal might not have prepared enough against the fast bowlers ahead of the Test series against South Africa in home conditions. Pollock recalled that Jaiswal played a brilliant knock against Australia on a bouncy Perth track in the second innings.

However, out of the four innings against South Africa, Jaiswal was dismissed thrice by Marco Jansen. Jansen once again accounted for Jaiswal when the latter was trying to play a cut shot against the lanky pacer on Tuesday. But the southpaw could not manage an outside edge to wicket-keeper, Kyle Verreynne.

Shaun Pollock said on Cricbuzz, “I think it could be a prep thing, if we’re brutally honest, because I saw him play an unbelievable innings on a real bouncy surface in Perth. That’s a tough place to bat. We’ve just seen an example of it (Ashes). Both teams get mowed down because of the excessive bounce there. And he dealt with it, got out in the first innings, but then came back and got a wonderful hundred the second time around.”

Pollock added that Jaiswal would have thought he doesn’t need a lot of preparation against the fast bowlers while playing in India.

“So, preparation-wise for that Test match, how many short-pitched deliveries did he deal with? What game plan did he come up with? I remember him ramping some shots over the keeper, and he was brilliant. Coming to this series, he was probably thinking spin-friendly surfaces, I’m not going to have to deal with that kind of bowling. So, that’s why he might have been caught a little bit unawares.”

The former Proteas pacer said India’s ordinary batting effort has been a huge surprise.

“It hasn’t been a great batting display by India again just in that short period. South Africa have just bossed this game. I keep thinking that somewhere India are going to bounce back, but unfortunately for them, they haven’t been able to do so. I think that’s been the biggest surprise.”

South Africa have won the second Test by a huge margin of 408 runs.