Jaiswal-Gill: Another prolific left-right opening pair in the offing?
Having bided their time in the shadows of Rohit, Kohli and KL Rahul, the tour of Sri Lanka could herald a new beginning for the young batters
Kolkata: India have been down this road before. Tendulkar-Ganguly, Gambhir-Sehwag, Dhawan-Sharma — the left-right opening combination has yielded excellence across decades. A fair bit of chemistry must have been at work, but irrefutable was the advantage of exploiting the discomfort of a bowler forced to change his line every other delivery. Not that Sehwag-Tendulkar or Sharma-Kohli were any less emphatic, but left-handers tend to lend a different sheen while messing with the bowlers’ lines.
India wouldn’t have known that though for the better part of the last decade. Between Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul and Virat Kohli, the top-three was often above discussion in white-ball cricket, but not always with a valid reason. So to return to a left-right opening combination after seven years — Dhawan and Sharma were the last prolific pair, back in the 2017 Champions Trophy final — must feel like a restart of sorts. Young but extraordinarily skilled, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shubman Gill were long asking to be paired. It happened briefly last year on the tour of the Caribbean, but everyone knew it was stop-gap.
This is different though. With Sharma and Kohli retired from T20Is, and Rahul clearly out of the picture, the tour of Sri Lanka should kick off a new era of opening batting with Gill and Jaiswal at the helm, hopefully in all formats in the time to come. The wait wasn’t without its rewards though. Chances haven’t always come their way in bigger events, but both Gill and Jaiswal have had a taste of opening the batting with Sharma. Last year stood out in particular, with Gill and Sharma aggregating 1520 runs in 22 ODI innings they opened together. On the other hand, Jaiswal — yet to make his ODI debut — has taken the T20 format by storm, aggregating 1060 runs in the last two IPL seasons at a strike rate of nearly 160. His T20I strike rate? 162.78. With a hundred to show as well.
We are also talking two different schools of batting here. Gill has been hiding in plain sight for pretty much his entire ODI journey because of a solid technique and a freakishly calm exterior that doesn’t let out what feeds his ferocious appetite for runs. And while it can be said that Sharma has often protected him by blasting away from the top, Gill more than makes up by doubling his scoring rate when it matters. But his starts in T20s have often been too cautious. Jaiswal is more in-your-face though, with that tendency to go after the bowling from the first ball reaping mixed dividends in T20s.
Together, however, they promise good returns. Like in Zimbabwe, where Gill finished the highest scorer with 170 runs at a strike rate of 125.92 in five innings. Jaiswal was second with 141 runs, and together they have an unbeaten 156-run stand to show for in the fourth T20I. Last year too, they had put on 165 for the first wicket against West Indies. Long way to go but given their history, having spent considerable time together on different tours, there is no reason why Gill and Jaiswal can’t reach the level of their illustrious predecessors.
“We really enjoy batting with each other. Especially the kind of shots we play, we kind of complement each other,” Gill said in Pallekele on Thursday when asked about his partnership with Jaiswal. “Being a right-left combination, we have had good partnerships in whatever T20Is we have played before; two partnerships have been 150-plus (too). So we have a great understanding and communication between us, and I have fun batting with him.”
Pertinent here would be how Gill puts behind him a poor string of single-digit scores ahead of the 2024 T20 World Cup and treats this a fresh start. “My performance in T20Is before the World Cup this year wasn’t how I had expected it to be,” Gill said. “Hopefully, going forward, in the upcoming cycle—I think we will play 30-40 T20Is (before the next T20 World Cup) — I can improve my performance when it comes to batting, and also (we can improve) as a team.”