Swashbuckling opener Yashasvi Jaiswal has been rewarded by the outgoing national selection committee for his amazing consistency this year, which has seen him smash 8 hundreds across three domestic tournaments since June.
TOI has learnt that the 20-year-old left-handed Rajasthan Royals opener from Mumbai has been picked for the upcoming India A tour to Bangladesh-his maiden call-up at this level. The tour includes two-four-day matches. Jaiswal and Sarfaraz Khan, who too has scored runs by the bucket in the past two seasons, are the two picks from Mumbai for this tour, according to sources.
On Monday, Jaiswal continued his tremendous form, slamming an unbeaten 73 (77b, 7x4, 2x6) to help Mumbai to a nine-wicket romp over Pondicherry in their second-last Vijay Hazare Trophy (One-dayers) match at the JSCA Oval Ground in Ranchi on Monday.
Jaiswal has scored 392 runs in 5 games@98.00, with 2 back-to-back hundreds and 2 fifties so far in the tournament. Bouncing back after being dropped from the league stage of the Ranji Trophy, the young gun scored 498 runs@83.00 in just 3 matches- including three hundreds and one fifty -in the knockouts of the Ranji Trophy. With 497 runs in 3 games@99.40 in a tally which had two centuries, he was the highest run-getter in the Duleep Trophy earlier this season. He also scored 266 runs in the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy.
"If Mumbai qualify for the knockouts of the Vijay Hazare Trophy, the team will proceed straight to Ahmedabad for the knockouts. Yashasvi and Sarfaraz will not be available for the knockouts, as they will have to go to Bangladesh," a source told this paper.
Do-or-die next for Mumbai vs Railways
Meanwhile, Mumbai, who have 12 points after five games (3 wins) in a do-or-die encounter, must now beat Railways, who too have 12 points, in their final league game on Wednesday to qualify for the knockouts of the tournament.
With Mumbai chasing just 140, Jaiswal added 80 in 72 balls for the opening wicket with Prithvi Shaw (39, 39b, 5x4, 2x6).
Earlier, Ankit Sharma (79 not out, 84b, 8x4, 3x6) was the lone ranger as Mumbai, after putting Pondicherry in, skittled them out for merely 139 in 38 overs. Left-arm spinning allrounder Shams Mulani (3-45 in 10 overs), and pacers Tushar Deshpande (2-14 in 7 overs) and Mohit Avasthi (2-15 in 6 overs) did the maximum damage.
Brief Scores: Pondicherry 139 in 38 overs (Ankit Sharma 79 not out; Shams Mulani 3-55) lost to Mumbai 141-1 in 24.2 overs (Yashasvi Jaiswal 73 not out, Prithvi Shaw 39) by 9 wickets
