How Yashasvi found inner Jais-Wall to add another arrow in India’s ODI quiver

Visakhapatnam: Over 0.6: Yashasvi Jaiswal shouldered the arms as Marco Jansen’s tempting ball outside the off-stump found a safe passage to Quinton de Kock’s gloves.

Jaiswal did not attempt to play the cut. Jansen had a knowing smile, and De Kock clapped in mock appreciation.

It was a significant moment in the series-deciding third ODI against South Africa, which India eventually danced to a 9-wicket win. It was the earliest sign of Jaiswal’s transformed mindset.

It was an open statement: Tonight he would not be playing that edgy 'Jais-ball' from ball one, and will make most of a chance that came his way because of an injury to Shubman Gill, the original opener and also the regular skipper of the side.

That edginess and urge to dominate bowlers had consumed Jaiswal at Ranchi and Raipur, but here he eschewed all such thoughts.

When Proteas new ball bowlers tightened their lines, Jaiswal responded by leaving the ball and showing the patience to carry his bat. He seemed to have understood the rhythm of one-day cricket better now.

Head coach Gautam Gambhir touched on it.

"When you come into white-ball cricket from red-ball cricket, you think you have to bat aggressively. But you don't have to play aggressively because if you split the one-day format into 30 overs and 20 overs, it will be very easy. If you play 30 overs as ODIs, and the quality that Jaiswal has, if he bats for 30 overs, he will be batting close to 100. Even after that, you have 20 overs left, which you can look at as a T20 match."

It is only about finding a template. This was just Jaiswal's fourth game. The moment he figures out which tempo he needs to bat in one-day cricket, the sky is the limit," Gambhir said.

Jaiswal’s maiden ODI hundred here pre-validated Gambhir’s view.

The 23-year-old’s first fifty came in 75 balls, while getting some expert guidance from Rohit Sharma at the non-striker's end.

But the next 50 runs arrived in 35 balls, as the left-hander played a more familiar game.

In the phase between 22 and 26.1 overs, Jaiswal faced 11 balls and struck six boundaries to make a total 27 runs.

It was a thrilling maximisation of the platform he laid for himself with patience early on.

The calculated acceleration might have made Virat Kohli, with whom Jaiswal added 116 runs here, proud as this was an innings straight out of his playbook.

Patience will also be Jaiswal's biggest ally in the next few months as he wouldn't know when his next ODI appearance will be. Skipper Gill is fit for New Zealand series in January and after that India play a ODI game in July 2026 during the away series against England where Jaiswal can only fit in if one among skipper and veteran KL Rahul get injured.

Gill and, possibly, Shreyas Iyer too will be back for the ODI series against New Zealand next month, and Jaiswal is currently not in the national T20I scheme of things.

So, he might just have to play the waiting game. But Gambhir looked at the larger picture of creating a stronger pool of players for bigger assignments in future.

“Look, try and give them opportunities wherever we can because we still want a reasonable group of players — probably around 20-25 players before the (2027) World Cup. But once your captain and vice-captain is back, obviously they are your starters.

“But yes, what they had to do, they've done. More importantly, I think they need to keep themselves motivated because they should be ready whenever they get that opportunity, and grab that,” Gambhir explained.

Jaiswal ticked a box in the third ODI with his maidan ton and Ruturaj Gaikwad chipped in with a hundred at Raipur, leaving Gambhir pleased as punch.

“It's important that young boys come into the setup, grabbing their opportunities. Yashasvi…we’ve seen how much quality he has, especially what he does in Test cricket.

“Obviously, it's just the start of his career in white ball cricket. Hopefully, he has a massive future ahead,” he added.

And it will be closely knitted with India’s too.