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A headache.
Sleepless nights.
These are some of the terms that are loosely thrown about in the open while the opposition bowlers have talked about a 22-year-old batter.
That 22-year-old is none other than Yashasvi Jaiswal, India’s saviour in the ongoing World Test Championship (WTC) cycle. There are openers, there are consistent openers and aggressive openers, but then there is a rare breed that can marry consistency with aggression, and Jaiswal is like kyawthuite, the only one in world cricket.
He’s already had success against the West Indies, England, and New Zealand. Like that meme, Jaiswal, the Grim Reaper, is on the verge of Australia’s doors.
Can they escape without much damage?
Well, yes. There’s no certainty that the plan - which we’ll get into shortly - will work, but Jaiswal’s weakness in the fourth and fifth-stump channels is a good place to start. It was evident in how the New Zealand pacers targeted the left-hander, trying to get him to fish and poke at deliveries well outside the reach.
In his illustrious career thus far, it has been quite clear how Jaiswal hasn’t been as prolific against pacers as he has been against the spinners. Purely from a numbers perspective, he averages almost twice against spinners, strikes at almost 43% quicker and has scored almost twice the runs.
So, you will have to get him out even before Nathan Lyon gets a dig at him. That’s where the likes of Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins would be more vital in bowling to the left-hander. The pattern is such that whenever teams have tried to bowl outside the off-stump, especially right-arm seamers, Jaiswal has had his share of troubles.
Four out of his ten dismissals against right-arm seamers have been in that channel, where he averages only 33.5. Even if you for a second forget the numbers, just look at the below image to understand why targeting the area outside off-stump could be crucial for the Australian pacers.
Image from L-R: Jaiswal's dismissals vs pace in Tests and Jaiswal's beaten & edges against RAP in Tests
Right-arm pacers have beaten his bat 129 times in Tests, and, more often than not, it has been in that area wide outside the off-stump where he has been either beaten or he’s edged the ball 41 times. That’s ideally the spot where the right-arm quicks could target come the Perth Test, conditions where there is going to be a lot more bounce on offer.
From a length perspective, the ideal spot for the pacers is to target the good length area, something that comes naturally to the Australian right-arm quicks - Hazlewood and Cummins. Over the last five years (since 2019), these two, in particular, have bowled 87.2 % of their deliveries in the back of a length or in the short region, an area of weakness of Jaiswal that was visibly seen during the 2024 Indian Premier League (IPL) season.
Nearly 49% of those deliveries were on a length where Jaiswal has struggled massively, where the two right-arm seamers have also picked 47% of their wickets, showing how they could attack where it hurts for Jaiswal.
That brings us nicely to Jaiswal’s next weakness: short.
At the 2024 IPL, the left-hander’s potential weakness against pace was evident, with 13 out of his 14 dismissals coming against the quicks. The 22-year-old struggled to combat pace when they were on the money, with 40.5% of the balls he faced against them being dots.
That’s exactly where Australia could target if they don’t get him early in the innings.
Just like Travis Head, Jaiswal has troubles with the short delivery, with seven dismissals whenever the ball was bowled at 10m length or shorter. Only two of these dismissals have been whenever the bowler has targeted his body. However, when the ball has been wide and short, he has been unsuccessful with five dismissals.
In addition to all of that, he wasn’t even in control (57.8%) whenever the ball was above the stumps. That’s exactly where the pacers targeted him in IPL 2024, with six dismissals coming in that region – a false shot percentage of 42.2%, getting dismissed every 10.7 deliveries.
So, if Australia don't get him out early on, it could target him with short deliveries.
Jaiswal’s trouble against left-arm pacers
Like a lot of Indian batters, there is a particular weakness for Jaiswal against left-arm pacers, against whom he has admittedly batted on very few occasions. Out of the 59 deliveries that he has faced, Jaiswal has been dismissed thrice, averaging 11.
Surprisingly, Jaiswal didn’t face a single left-arm pacer during the entire home season, and the last bowler who troubled him as much in a single Test series was Nandre Burger in the series against South Africa.
The left-hander was dismissed thrice by Burger in that series, and two out of those dismissals were short deliveries, where the ball jumped off the surface to catch him on the gloves, showing clear signs of struggle on surfaces that are pacy and bouncy.
“I know Jaiswal is a really good player, but he has not come out and seen Australia before, so I am not sure whether he is going to handle the bounce. Opening in Perth is hard work,” former Australian wicketkeeper Brad Haddin told Willow Talk Podcast.
That’s where the pitch at the Optus Stadium might come in as a kryptonite for the left-handed opener. In a venue that has been primarily used for international clashes, pacers have absolutely dominated, with 75.6% of the wickets being taken by the wickets. In all Tests since 2018, 44 wickets taken by the quicks have been in that region that has disturbed Jaiswal.
When Jaiswal travelled away last time around, all he could score was 50 runs in the entire series. While people have forgotten that now, a failure in Australia will not be swept under the carpet.
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