Former Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara didn’t hold back in criticising Yashasvi Jaiswal after the young Indian opener’s poor showing in the third Test at Lord’s. Chasing 193 in the fourth innings, Jaiswal was dismissed for a seven-ball duck, looking completely out of sorts against England’s pace.
Facing Jofra Archer, who had also dismissed him in the first innings, Jaiswal once again fell to short-pitched bowling. Archer delivered a sharp 141 kph bouncer that took a thick top edge and was safely collected by wicketkeeper Jamie Smith.
Sangakkara, who works closely with Jaiswal as the Director of Cricket at Rajasthan Royals (RR) in the IPL, expressed disappointment at his performance. Speaking on Sky Sports, he noted Jaiswal’s lack of rhythm right from the start.
“Watching Jaiswal in the first over that he faced, he didn’tlook comfortable, he didn’t look watchable. He has spent a long time at short leg for India, and he has come out looking a bit jaded,” Sangakkara said.
Archer has the upper hand
Jaiswal’s first-innings dismissal was also a soft one. After scoring 13 off 8 balls, he again fell to Archer, making it two dismissals to the same bowler in the same Test. Archer appears to have figured out Jaiswal’s weakness against pace and bounce, exploiting it successfully in both innings.
Jaiswal began the series in excellent form, smashing a century (101) in the first innings of the Leeds Test. However, he followed it up with a low score of 4 in the second innings. In the second Test in Birmingham, he looked strong again with a fluent 87, narrowly missing out on another hundred. But his second-innings score of 28 and the low returns at Lord’s (13 and 0) now raise concerns about his inconsistency.
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