Yashasvi Jaiswal in place of Ishan Kishan: Ex-PBKS coach on India's squad for T20 World Cup 2026

Ishan Kishan last played T20Is for India in November 2023, while Yashasvi Jaiswal's previous outing came against Sri Lanka in July 2024.

Did Yashasvi Jaiswal deserve the backup opener spot over Ishan Kishan? The former has better numbers than the latter in T20Is and the Indian Premier League (IPL). Jaiswal was also the incumbent opener after Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli retired from the format in June 2024.

He was rested from T20Is by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to prioritise Test cricket. But when the time came for a return, the Asia Cup 2025, Shubman Gill was preferred over him. No doubt Kishan did well in the 2025-26 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (SMAT), but his performance over the last 2 years hasn’t really been impressive, especially when compared to Jaiswal.

Yashasvi Jaiswal & Jitesh Sharma unfairly treated?

Former Punjab Kings (PBKS) batting coach Wasim Jaffer thinks Jaiswal should’ve been picked over Kishan. Despite the latter’s recent exploits, you can’t really argue against the former. Of course, one has to factor in that Kishan is a wicketkeeper while Jaiswal isn’t.

But Jaffer has an answer for this. He thinks Jitesh Sharma should have been persisted with since he hadn’t really done anything to be dropped. Washington Sundar wouldn’t likely play, and India already has 3 spinners, including an all-rounder. In Jaffer’s opinion, Kishan and Washington don’t deserve the spots ahead of Jaiswal and Jitesh.

“I would have them in place of Ishan & Washi. Axar is VC so he’s sure to play and you can’t play Washi ahead of Varun and Kuldeep. Jitesh hasn’t done anything wrong to be dropped and Yashasvi, don’t need any explaining why he shouldn’t be there in first place,” Jaffer wrote on X.

India squad for T20 World Cup 2026

Suryakumar Yadav (c), Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan (wk), Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Sanju Samson (wk), Jasprit Bumrah, Varun Chakaravarthy, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana, Washington Sundar, Axar Patel (vc), Rinku Singh