Former Indian batter Robin Uthappa feels Yashasvi Jaiswal should wait for his chance in the T20I series against the West Indies. India have lost the first two T20Is against the Windies but Uthappa believes the young players should be backed for two more matches as they are playing after a long gap of almost two months.
Meanwhile, Shubman Gill and Ishan Kishan have failed to give solid starts to the team in the first two matches. On the other hand, Yashasvi Jaiswal had made a prolific start to his Test career, scoring a fine knock of 171 runs on debut against the West Indies earlier on the ongoing tour.
Jaiswal scored 625 runs in 14 IPL matches in the 16th season of the IPL at an average of 48.08 and an impressive strike rate of 163.61. Ergo, he was awarded Emerging Player of the Season.
Speaking on Jio Cinema, Robin Uthappa said, “No, I don’t think it’s time to bring Jaiswal into the mix. I think you still want to give these guys probably another two games simply because a lot of these guys are playing after the IPL. They are coming and playing T20 cricket only after a month-and-a-half break after the IPL.”
The former Indian opener added: “I still think you need to let these guys have a few more games before you want to make any changes because you have a good 20-21 games to go before the World Cup next year. So you want to give them a little bit of a run, at least four or five games, before you think of making any changes. You want to trust the process in that sense.”
Meanwhile, the batters have let the team down in the two matches of the series and Uthappa expects the batters to show more intent in the first six overs of the Powerplay.
“I certainly do see them showing a lot more intent in the third T20I, simply because this (2nd T20I) was their first game at Guyana and they didn’t have too much information about the wicket.”
Uthappa highlighted that the young players don’t have any experience of playing on the West Indies’ pitches and they are getting accustomed to the conditions.
“You have to understand that a lot of these boys are traveling to the West Indies and playing in these venues for the first time. So it’s not like you can trust the wicket. They are still figuring all of those aspects out and those aspects will always remain true in cricket no matter what version of the game you play.”
The third T20I of the series will be played at Providence Stadium, Guyana on Tuesday.
