"He is trying to rush things" - Former BGT hero shares advice for Indian batter ahead of Boxing Day Test
India's Test great Cheteshwar Pujara had some sound words of advice for young batter Yashasvi Jaiswal ahead of the Boxing Day Test against Australia, starting in Melbourne on December 26. Pujara felt Jaiswal has been rushing things at the start of his innings in an attempt to score quick runs, resulting in his struggles over the last two Tests.
The 22-year-old scored a breathtaking 161 in the second innings of the opening Test at Perth to help India win by 295 runs. However, Jaiswal has managed only 32 runs at an average of 10.66 in the subsequent two Tests at Adelaide and Brisbane.
Speaking on Star Sports about Jaiswal's recent struggles, Pujara said as quoted by News18:
"He needs to give himself a bit more time, the way he is playing, he is trying to rush things, he is trying to play shots a bit more. He should only play shots if he is quite sure about it, especially in the first 5–10 overs because it seems that he is in a hurry to score runs, he wants a quick start, and he wants to score those first 15–20 runs quickly."
He added:
"When you are an opener in Test cricket then you don’t go out searching for the ball, you play the deliveries on merit. Even if you are an aggressive player, even Virender Sehwag was an aggressive player, but he used to play shots only when the ball was pitched in his zone."
Despite the low scores in the last two Tests, Jaiswal is the third leading run-scorer in the ongoing India-Australia series with 193 runs at an average of 38.50.
The southpaw has enjoyed a sensational start to his Test career, scoring 1,600 runs at an average of 53.33 in 17 outings.
"He is trying to drive the deliveries which are not pitched up" - Cheteshwar Pujara
Cheteshwar Pujara acknowledged openers being aggressive in modern-day Test cricket but felt most of them play shots only when the delivery is in their range, contrary to Jaiswal.
Jaiswal has shown the tendency to score big once set, evidence by all his four Test centuries being 150+ scores.
"There are a lot of aggressive batters and openers in Test cricket today, but they play the shots when the ball is pitched in the hitting zone, but here it looks like Yashasvi is trying to convert the shots, he is trying to drive the deliveries which are not pitched up," said Pujara.
He concluded:
"He needs to be a bit calm, he needs to spend a bit more time, if he will show some confidence in his defence then that’s when he’ll come across some shot-playing deliveries because the moment when you show some respect to the bowlers and you defend well then they’ll look forward to getting a wicket and gradually they’ll start pitching the ball a bit up and that’s when you can play those drives."
Pujara is no stranger to batting at the top order in Australian conditions, having starred in India's back-to-back Test series wins down under in 2018/19 and 2020/21.
Meanwhile, Jaiswal's form will be crucial for India to complete a hattrick of Test series wins in Australia with the series tied at 1-1.