Ravichandran Ashwin has accused India’s selectors and team management of an injustice against Yashasvi Jaiswal. On his YouTube show Ash ki Baat, he said that leaving Jaiswal out of both ODI squads for New Zealand is breaking his confidence.
“The team management and selectors are doing an injustice to Jaiswal & they are shattering his self-confidence.”
R Ashwin, Ash ki Baat, October 2026
🚨Injustice towards Jaiswal – R Ashwin
-They aren’t giving Jaiswal any international game time. He should have been selected for the last 2 ODIs.
-The team management and selectors are doing an injustice to Jaiswal & they are shattering his self-confidence.
-Jaiswal is a run-machine, but his confidence clearly appears to be down in the current Test matches.
-If Rohit Sharma plays in the 2027 World Cup, what guarantee is there that Jaiswal will be the opener afterward? After all, there’s also Vaibhav Sooryavanshi.
-They are neither selecting him for T20s nor for ODIs. A great injustice is being done to him.
— Indian Cricket 🏏 (@Indiancric1cm) October 16, 2026
The bench is only half of Ashwin’s point. The sharper part is one name he mentioned, and what that name does to an opener’s mind.
On October 16, the BCCI named two squads for the five-match ODI series in New Zealand. Shubman Gill leads the first three games. Gill, KL Rahul, Prasidh Krishna and Anshul Kamboj then sit out the last two, and Shreyas Iyer takes over as captain.
Jaiswal is in neither squad. Ishan Kishan is vice-captain for the final two games, and NewsX reports he is expected to open with Rohit Sharma.
“They aren’t giving Jaiswal any international game time. He should have been selected for the last 2 ODIs.”
R Ashwin, Ash ki Baat, October 2026
His ODI record makes the call harder to explain. Jaiswal has 285 runs in six ODIs at an average of 71.25, with two hundreds. He was in the squad for the home series against West Indies but did not play, and his last ODI was on June 17.
The schedule weakens the usual explanation. Gill is missing the last two ODIs to prepare for the Tests. Jaiswal is in the Test squad too, but his red-ball preparation is already set in New Zealand with India A.
| Date | Fixture |
|---|---|
| Oct 24-27 | India A vs NZ A, 1st unofficial Test, Lincoln |
| Oct 31-Nov 3 | India A vs NZ A, 2nd unofficial Test, Christchurch |
| Nov 4, 7, 10 | ODIs 1 to 3: Auckland, Wellington, Hamilton |
| Nov 7-10 | India A vs NZ A, 3rd unofficial Test, Lincoln |
| Nov 13, 15 | ODIs 4 and 5: Mount Maunganui |
| Nov 19 | 1st Test, Wellington |
Jaiswal’s India A tour ends on November 10. ODIs 4 and 5 clash with none of his fixtures, and he would still have four days before the first Test.
“Jaiswal is a run-machine, but his confidence clearly appears to be down in the current Test matches.”
R Ashwin, Ash ki Baat, October 2026
His last Tests were in Sri Lanka in August. At Galle he was run out for 32 after a mix-up in the middle. At Colombo he made 45 before Asitha Fernando bowled him, and the dismissal ended in a heated clash.
“If Rohit Sharma plays in the 2027 World Cup, what guarantee is there that Jaiswal will be the opener afterward? After all, there’s also Vaibhav Sooryavanshi.”
R Ashwin, Ash ki Baat, October 2026
Rohit is in both ODI squads, and his place at the 2027 World Cup is still being debated. Sooryavanshi, 15, has already opened for India in T20Is.
Insider Read
A batter waiting outside a side is not really competing with the man in front of him. He is competing with whoever is talked about as next. Once a teenager carries that label, every Jaiswal innings is measured against potential, and potential never gets out.
You feel that pressure at the crease first. The first ten balls stop being about getting in and start being about proving something, and that is when an opener chases width he would normally leave. Ashwin saw this in May, when he compared Jaiswal to Aakash Chopra, a fine opener made invisible by Virender Sehwag at the other end.
When Jaiswal Bats Next
Jaiswal’s next cricket is with the red ball. India A’s first unofficial Test against New Zealand A starts on October 24 in Lincoln, and India’s first Test is in Wellington on November 19.
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