Former chief selector highlights Agarkar’s big failure for T20 World Cup

Amid all the talk about Shubman Gill’s exclusion and Ishan Kishan’s inclusion, everyone has forgotten about Yashasvi Jaiswal. The southpaw was the incumbent opener after Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli retired from T20I cricket in June 2024. Yet, less than 2 years later, Jaiswal hasn’t been included in India’s squad for the 2026 T20 World Cup.

He was rested from T20Is by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to prioritise Test cricket. And while Gill was given a run of 15 matches, Jaiswal didn’t get any. One can easily claim that over the last 3 years, Jaiswal has been a better T20 opener than Gill and Kishan. Including the Indian Premier League (IPL), domestic and international numbers.

Jaiswal hard done by?

Former India chief selector Dilip Vengsarkar thinks Gill was rightly dropped by the selection committee headed by Ajit Agarkar. The Test and ODI captain wasn’t in the best of nick. He hadn’t even scored a fifty since his return in the 2025 Asia Cup.

“They are all excellent players, but I am with the selection committee when they judge players on the basis of current form and fitness. The current form does play an important role in the context of selection. You are bound to lose confidence if you are made to feel that you are not required in one format. I mean, it will affect his confidence, and this game is all about confidence. And confidence comes when you have performances backed by runs,” Vengsarkar told PTI.

But he isn’t pleased with who was brought into the same side, or rather, who wasn’t. He thinks Jaiswal deserved the backup opener spot after Gill wasn’t included. No doubt Kishan had an exceptional Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (SMAT) 2025-26 season for Jharkhand, but over a long period, neither Kishan nor Gill holds a candle to Jaiswal.

“And if you ask whom I would have picked instead of Gill, my choice would have been Jaiswal. He has proven time and again what a class performer he is and has always given the team the kind of starts required these days,” Vengsarkar told PTI.

T20 stat comparison since 2023