“Was surprised that Yashasvi Jaiswal was retained” - Wasim Jaffer on Rajasthan Royals opener for IPL 2022

Former Indian cricketer Wasim Jaffer has expressed surprise at Rajasthan Royals’ decision to retain young opener Yashasvi Jaiswal for the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 edition. According to Jaffer, the left-hander was a bit too inexperienced to be retained by the franchise.

The 20-year-old aggressive batter was retained by RR for a surprisingly high amount of ₹4 crore. He scored 249 runs in 10 matches last season at an average of 24.90 and a strike rate of 148.21.

Analyzing the decision to retain Jaiswal during an interaction on ESPNcricinfo, Jaffer stated:

“I was surprised that Yashasvi Jaiswal was retained so early. I think he will open with Devdutt Padikkal for the Rajasthan Royals. Jaiswal was dropped during the Ranji season, which was a setback of sorts for him. When you are a retained player, there is a different responsibility. The same applies to Abdul Samad and Umran Malik from the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH). These players are unknown quantities, who haven’t tasted much IPL success. How they handle this pressure will be interesting to see.”

The left-hander has the experience of 23 T20 matches in which he has scored 429 matches at an average of 19.50 and a strike rate of 128.82.

“He’s very exciting and a guy who has tremendous courage” - Kumar Sangakkara on Yashasvi Jaiswal

RR’s Director of Cricket Kumar Sangakkara has hailed Jaiswal as a youngster with tremendous courage and determination. Speaking during a Clubhouse session organized by Red Bull, Sangakkara said:

“I don’t want to single out, but we have some very good young players. They all have the potential. We saw what Yashasvi can do last season; we are still scratching the surface with him. He’s very exciting and a guy who has tremendous courage and determination growing up. He’s committed and works hard, sometimes too hard. He wants to learn all the time. We are very fortunate to have come across Yashasvi and have him in our squad.”

Rajasthan will begin their IPL 2022 campaign by taking on Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) at the MCA Stadium in Pune on March 29.