Former Indian Test opener Aakash Chopra questioned the selectors for their handling of Yashasvi Jaiswal after Rajasthan Royals registered a six-wicket win against Punjab Kings at New Chandigarh on Tuesday. Jaiswal continued his rich form, scoring a fine knock of 51 runs off 27 balls with the help of seven fours and one six.
The RR opener has scored 306 runs in nine matches of IPL 2026 at an average of 43.71 and a strike rate of 158.54. Jaiswal is currently not part of India’s T20I team and didn’t get a place in the T20 World Cup squad recently. In fact, Jaiswal was the backup opener in the 2024 T20 World Cup.
Chopra said forget about selection, Jaiswal is surprisingly not even part of the conversation despite performing well.
“Look at his numbers in the last three years. He was a part of the T20 World Cup 2024-winning team, and then he got dropped. Everyone gets selected and dropped, but no one talks about him. I am not saying he should be selected. I understand there is no vacant place,” Chopra said on his YouTube Channel.
“If you see his IPL numbers for the last three years, he has scored runs and has a good average and strike rate. He is doing everything right. However, forget about selection, he isn’t even part of the conversation. What was done after 2024 was like taking a fly out of milk and throwing it away. What was the guy’s mistake?” he added.
On the other hand, the renowned analyst praised Vaibhav Suryavanshi for scoring a quickfire knock of 43 runs off just 16 balls in the run chase of 223 to give a perfect start to RR.
“The guy is getting mature. He is getting better by the day. Arshdeep Singh bowled yorkers on the first two balls, and he defended them. He realized that Arshdeep would have to do something different because his reputation had come before him. Arshdeep brought the ball in, it was on the legs, and he played a pick-up shot for a six,” he said.
