Former head coach and Indian international Ravi Shastri believes that Yashasvi Jaiswal will become a better player after the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25, which is scheduled to start in Perth, Australia on Friday.
Jaiswal, who was retained by the Rajasthan Royals ahead of the Indian Premier League 2025 season, will be on his debut tour to Australia with the Indian cricket team, which will play a five-Test series Down Under for the first time since 1992.
"I think he’ll be a better player when he leaves Australian shores. Already he’s world-class," Shastri told Fox Cricket.
"You saw what he did against England (and) just the freedom with which he plays.”
Jaiswal made his Test debut against the West Indies in July last year and has since amassed 1407 runs from just 14 matches at an impressive average of 56.28. The southpaw has three centuries, including two double hundreds against England earlier this year, and eight fifties to his name from 26 innings.
The 22-year-old Jaiswal was in great form during the five-Test England series at home, which concluded in March, finishing as the highest run-getter with a tally of 712 runs at an average of 89.00.
Jaiswal, who is currently second in the batting charts in the World Test Championship 2023-25 cycle behind England's Joe Root, is also the highest run-getter for India in a single edition of the WTC. He went past Ajinkya Rahane’s tally of 1159 runs, in the WTC 2019-21 cycle, during the Bangladesh Test series last month.
India will kickstart their campaign against Australia at the Perth Stadium, known for its fast and bouncy wickets. Australia have won all four of their Test matches played at this venue.
"It’s not going to be easy to adjust in Perth with that bounce, no matter how talented you are. You have got to be prepared to do the hard yards,” Shastri said.
"But if he (Jaiswal) can see that phase through and adapt to these conditions, I think he’ll entertain. He will love these pitches. He’s someone who scores pretty freely as well.”
"He’s come up the hard way, so you can see that hunger and passion, not just in his eyes, but when he’s out there in the middle, fielding in the slips. He wants to be involved in the game,” the former Indian cricket coach summed up.
