"What can it do your confidence?" - R Ashwin blasts team management over Yashasvi Jaiswal move ahead of ENG vs IND 2025 2nd Test

Former India spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has slammed the team management for moving Yashasvi Jaiswal out of he slip cordon for the second Test against England after his forgettable outing in the series opener. The youngster had a hard time in the field, dropping four catches, which proved to be a game-changer as Ben Stokes and co. claimed a series lead at Headingley, Leeds.

Playing his first-ever Test in England, Jaiswal fared well with the bat in the first innings, recording a memorable hundred. However, he struggled in the field, dropping England's core batters like Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, and Harry Brook, with all of them going on to post meaningful scores, negating India's first innings lead.

Apart from Jaiswal, the likes of Ravindra Jadeja and Rishabh Pant also spilled chances, but the sheer volume of dropped catches by the youngster attracted a lot of attention. During the preparation for the second Test in Birmingham, Jaiswal was not spotted among the members of the slip cordon practicing their catches with the coach. The trio of Karun Nair, KL Rahul, and Sai Sudharsan kept their places, while Nitish Kumar Reddy was slotted in.

Ashwin enquired whether being shunned from the slip cordon after a bad game would hamper Jaiswal's confidence and his batting returns.

"We are not sure if he asked for it, but Jaiswal was removed from the slip cordon. He was shunned. Of course, he has picked a lot of catches in the slips, and if a drop sends you out, what can it do to your confidence? I believe leadership comes into play when you can take responsibility for someone who feels deflated," Ashwin said on his YouTube channel.

"Say you are the captain, and a fielder drops a catch. You know he always puts in the effort and practices, and if he still drops a catch, it means that it was not his day. One should not deflate his confidence. I can ask him is everything okay and all, but what many do is, right in the middle, they shift their fielding position. It deflates the confidence of a player completely. I have gone through the same," Ashwin further explained.

Jaiswal has taken 20 catches in 20 Tests so far, with a set of brilliant, sharp, catches in the slip cordon during the home series against Bangladesh in September 2024.

"There's also an argument for the short leg being a very important position, particularly if we are going to play two spinners. We want to pick more guys in that position. So I think the more versatile we are as a fielding unit, the more guys can do more jobs. Maybe just give Yashasvi a break from catching in the gully for a little while. His hands are quite sore. We want to get his confidence back up," Team India assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate had said in the pre-match press conference (via NDTV).

He had endured a tough game on the field during the second innings of the Boxing Day Test during the 2024-25 Border-Gavaskar series. The youngster dropped three chances, including that of top-order batters Usman Khawaja and Marnus Labuschagne, leaving then-skipper Rohit Sharma fuming.

"Do you know the kind of effort that he has put in?" - R Ashwin defends Yashasvi Jaiswal ahead of ENG vs IND 2025 2nd Test

Ashwin, who shared the dressing room with Yashasvi Jaiswal during his three-year stint with the Rajasthan Royals (RR) from 2022-24, recalled how the youngster used to struggle. The spinner revealed that Jaiswal worked hard to elevate his fielding standards.

In the 67 IPL matches he has played so far, he has taken 27 catches. Furthermore, in his ODI debut during the home series against England, he clinched a stunning catch to dismiss Ben Duckett.

"I saw someone saying Jaiswal is not a slip fielder. I know what Jaiswal was, when he initially started playing for RR, he did not know fielding angles at all. Do you know the kind of effort that he has put in?" Ashwin said.

The second Test between India and England will be played at Edgbaston, Birmingham, from Wednesday, July 2, onwards.