"His hands are quite sore" - Team India's assistant coach reacts to Yashasvi Jaiswal's dropped catches in ENG vs IND 2025 1st Test
India's assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate has stated that the team management is working on getting Yashasvi Jaiswal's confidence back after the opener dropped four catches in the first Test against England at Headingley in Leeds. Admitting that the youngster's hands are quite sore, Ten Doeschate added that Team India are working towards having greater depth in the catching department.
England beat India by five wickets in the opening Test in Leeds. While the visitors stumbled in both the batting and bowling departments, they were extremely poor in the field, dropping several catches, some of them relatively simple ones. Jaiswal was one of the main culprits and even dropped Player of the Match Ben Duckett on Day 5 of the first Test.
In the practice session on Monday, June 30, Sai Sudharsan and Nitish Kumar Reddy fielded at fourth slip and gully, respectively. Significantly, Jaiswal was in the slips in the Headingley Test. At a press conference on Monday, Ten Doeschate shed light on the change in field positions and said (via IANS):
“Look, I think we always want depth in the catching department. In England, you're always going to have four catchers at some stage in the game. Yashasvi has been a very good catcher for us. We want to manage his confidence. There's also an argument for the short leg being a very important position, particularly if we are going to play two spinners.”
“We want to pick more guys in that position. So I think the more versatile we are as a fielding unit, the more guys can do more jobs. Maybe just give Yashasvi a break from catching in the gully for a little while. His hands are quite sore. We want to get his confidence back up,” the former Netherlands cricketer went on to add.
While Jaiswal struggled in the field in the opening Test against England, he was impressive with the willow. The left-handed batter scored 101 off 159 balls in the first innings. He hit 16 fours and a six before being bowled by Ben Stokes.
Yashasvi Jaiswal could surpass Indian legend with big knock in Birmingham
Jaiswal (23) has made an exceptional start to his Test career. In 20 Tests (38 innings), he has scored 1903 runs at an average of 52.86, with five hundreds and 10 half-centuries. If he scores 97 runs in the second Test, the left-hander will break Sunil Gavaskar's record to become the fastest Indian to 2,000 Test runs. Gavaskar got to the landmark in 23 matches.
Rahul Dravid and Virender Sehwag went past 2,000 Test runs in their 25th match. Jaiswal looks set to go past these two Indian legends as well. In his first-class career, the youngster has played 39 games and has scored 3,927 runs, averaging 58.61.