Since making his international debut in July 2023 during a Test match against the West Indies in Dominica, Yashasvi Jaiswal has played all the matches for Team India in the whites, and he has also impressed with his performances in both the white-ball formats.
The left-handed batter from Mumbai is one of the six Indians to score at least one century each in Tests, ODIs and T20Is, but despite that, he was not picked by the Indian selectors in the T20 World Cup 2026 squad.
The BCCI’s senior men’s selection committee dropped Shubman Gill from the squad but as his replacement included Ishan Kishan and not Jaiswal.
Jaiswal’s snub from the T20 World Cup 2026 squad raised a few eyebrows, and according to former India captain Dilip Vengsarkar, he doesn’t know what else the left-handed batter needs to do to get into the team.
“It is unfortunate that Yashasvi is being left out time and again for no fault of his. He has been in tremendous form across all formats of the game, and I don’t know what else he has to do to get into the team,” Vengsarkar, who also served as chief selector in the late 2000s, was quoted as saying by PTI.
Jaiswal last played T20Is in Sri Lanka in July 2024, after which India prioritised Test cricket for the next six months, and Jaiswal was also asked to concentrate on red-ball cricket.
His last five T20I scores read 93, 12, 40, 30 and 10 – all while opening the innings – and at a strike rate of close to 200, conforming to the current team’s philosophy of attack at all costs without worrying about the volume of runs.
“Nobody should leave a match winner out of the team,” Vengsarkar said in a forthright assessment.
Vengsarkar, however, agreed with the current selection committee on Shubman Gill’s exclusion, as he feels current form does play a huge role in picking a particular cricketer. But he is also clear in his mind who would have been his first choice while excluding Gill.
“They are all excellent players, but I am with the selection committee when they judge players on the basis of current form and fitness. The current form does play an important role in the context of selection. And if you ask whom I would have picked instead of Gill, my choice would have been Jaiswal. He has proven time and again what a class performer he is and has always given the team the kind of starts required these days,” said the former India skipper.