Yashasvi Jaiswal, once considered India's next all-format batter, has extraordinary white-ball numbers, but might never realise his potential due to India's rich resources, writes Sarah Waris.
Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot is often described as a play in which nothing happens.
Two men stand beside a barren tree waiting for somebody called Godot. Every evening, a messenger arrives carrying the same promise: Godot will not come today, but he will surely come tomorrow. That tomorrow, however, never quite arrives. The promise remains alive, the possibility remains alive, and so they wait.
Perhaps that is why the text has resonated for decades. It understands a particular kind of hope. The kind that refuses to die because it always feels just close enough to hold on to.
Is that what it must feel like to be Yashasvi Jaiswal right now?
Asked to open in the third ODI against Afghanistan, in the absence of Virat Kohli and with Shubman Gill moving down the order, Jaiswal did what he has spent much of his career doing. He scored runs. The hundred was fluent, assured and almost easy. As he removed his helmet and smiled towards the dressing room, it was difficult not to pause for a moment and wonder what might have been going through his mind.
Maybe because everybody watching understood the reality of his situation.
His ODI average sits at 71.25. He has two hundreds in six matches, the only six ODIs he has played. Two tons have come in his last three innings. In T20Is, he strikes at 164.31 across 23 matches. One hundred, five fifties. His last appearance, however, came in July 2024.
Also Read: India ODI squad for England tour: Yashasvi Jaiswal dropped despite second ton in three games
His story is familiar by now. A teenager leaves Uttar Pradesh chasing a cricket career in Mumbai. For a period, he lives in a tent at Azad Maidan, sells pani puri to support himself and spends his days trying to stand out in a city overflowing with young cricketers carrying similar dreams.
The sacrifices pay off, as the runs arrive and then gush forth. For Mumbai. For India Under-19s. Then in the IPL.
His breakthrough season was in 2023. He scored 625 runs at 48.07 and a strike rate of 163.61 to win the Emerging Player award. Between 2023 and 2024, he scored 1,060 IPL runs at a strike rate of 160.36, one of only two Indians among the ten highest run-getters in that period to strike above 160.
At the same time, his Test career exploded into life. A century on debut against the West Indies was followed by one of the strongest starts by a batter in recent memory. Since his debut, he has been the second-highest run-scorer in the format, averaging 48.75. He has seven hundreds, five of which are scores above 160, oscillating between strike rates according to the demands of the conditions. He has a hundred in every country he has played in except South Africa, and has already established himself as one of India's genuine match-winners in Test cricket.
It felt only a matter of time before he ruled the other formats too. He seemed built for all three. He has the patience and discipline required for Tests. The aggression demanded for T20s. The balance and tempo that make great ODI batters. At a time when India were still trying to adapt to a new batting template, Jaiswal's fearless approach across formats already made him stand out.
Even when Rohit Sharma and Kohli returned ahead of the 2024 T20 World Cup and pushed him into the reserves, it felt temporary. It was to be their final act, but Jaiswal remained in the conversation. The assumption was simple enough. His time would come.
Except that it's been two years, and he is still waiting.
While he has cemented his place in the Test side, there remains a lingering sense that it should have been more. His white-ball omissions have arrived wrapped in perfectly reasonable explanations. India's batting depth is extraordinary. The top order is crowded. Established players continue to score runs. He needs to be managed ahead of long Test tours. Somebody was always going to miss out.
All true, but somehow that almost makes it worse.
Because there is no obvious villain in the story. No glaring injustice. No selector stubbornly refusing to acknowledge his talent. The numbers are there for everyone to see. So is the potential.
The 2026 IPL provided the clearest snapshot of this peculiar circumstance.
Jaiswal scored 427 runs at a strike rate of 152.50. Since 2023, every IPL season of his has produced a strike rate above 150, with two seasons brushing against 160. By any reasonable measure, it was another productive campaign. Yet much of the spotlight drifted elsewhere, towards Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, who became the defining story of the tournament.
Sooryavanshi's performances immediately earned him a place in India's T20I plans, even as it eludes Jaiswal. With no spot in the ODI team either, despite his last-game hundred, he continues to remain on the outside, looking in. It has left him occupying a curious middle ground: no longer the newest story, not yet an established white-ball regular. At 24, still young enough to be considered part of India's future, but old enough to watch the game's newest whizkid surge past him.
For now, Jaiswal remains where he has been for much of the last two years: holding on for the next opportunity, believing it might finally be the one that secures his place.
Almost like Beckett's characters, who wait because tomorrow always feels possible. Hope survives because there is always a reason to believe that the call will come and that the door will finally open.
"Let's go."
"We can't."
"Why not?"
"We're waiting for Godot."
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