R. Ashwin has never been one to mince words, and his latest outburst has lit up the Indian cricket debate. The former India off-spinner has called the selectors’ decision to leave Yashasvi Jaiswal out of both ODI squads for the five-match series in New Zealand “very unfair” and “unfortunate” — and warned that repeated snubs could do lasting damage to the young opener’s confidence.
The BCCI announced two squads for the New Zealand ODI series on October 16, and Jaiswal’s name appeared in neither. Shubman Gill will captain the first three ODIs, before Gill, KL Rahul, Prasidh Krishna and Anshul Kamboj sit out the final two matches — with Shreyas Iyer taking over the captaincy and Ishan Kishan named vice-captain for the last two games. Jaiswal, meanwhile, was nowhere in the picture, and that absence has become the single biggest talking point of the announcement.
Speaking on his YouTube show “Ash ki Baat”, Ashwin zeroed in on what he sees as the clearest inconsistency: with Gill rested for the final two ODIs, a natural opening for Jaiswal existed — and it was not taken. In Ashwin’s view, those two matches would have given the youngster valuable match practice at the highest level. To leave him out of both squads entirely, he argued, defies logic.
Ashwin’s defence of Jaiswal went deeper than squad arithmetic. He pointed out that the left-hander has not played international cricket for roughly four months, despite being a consistent run-scorer across formats. “He was a run machine,” Ashwin noted — and keeping such a player involved, he said, is squarely the job of the selectors and team management. His warning was pointed: repeated exclusions of this kind could “ruin his confidence”, a steep price to pay for a batter of Jaiswal’s obvious quality.
There is, to be fair, a counterpoint doing the rounds. Jaiswal has been named in India A’s red-ball squad for the New Zealand Tests, and some coverage has offered Test-preparation priority as one explanation for the ODI omission. It is a reasonable reading of the selectors’ intent — India do play the long game with their red-ball prospects, and shielding a youngster’s Test rhythm has precedent.
But Ashwin’s core objection stands on its own merits: match practice is match practice. A two-match window with the captain rested was, in his telling, precisely the kind of low-risk, high-reward opportunity that young players are supposed to get. Whether the selectors reconsider for future assignments remains to be seen — but Ashwin has ensured that Jaiswal’s snub will not pass quietly, and the conversation about how India manages its next generation of openers is now unavoidable.
