R Ashwin Calls Yashasvi Jaiswal’s Omission from India’s New Zealand ODI Squad Unfair

Former India spinner, Ravichandran Ashwin has expressed his displeasure over the omission of Yashasvi Jaiswal from the squad that was selected recently for the upcoming five-match ODI series against New Zealand that is slated to start from November 4, 2026.

The BCCI announced the squad for both the ODI and the Test matches on Friday evening and Yashasvi Jaiwal failed to find his place in the squad, despite regular team opener and captain Shubman Gill not being part of the team for the final two ODIs.

Jaiswal is most likely to play for India A in the series against New Zealand A ahead of the test series. However, Ashwin believes that the Mumbai youngster must have played in the ODIs too. One of the leading wicket takers for India across all formats, Ashwin, argued that the lack of game time could seriously hamper Jaiswal’s confidence and form.

He also noted that since Gill will be missing the final two ODIs to prepare for the test series, Jaiswal would have been a great replacement and he would have benefited from playing more 50-over matches. This would have provided solid preparation for the tests, which gets underway from November 19 in Wellington.

Ashwin quoted, “If Gill is not playing the last two ODIs, then Jaiswal should definitely get the spot. It is very unfortunate because all of this can ruin his confidence now with the way he was scoring runs.” He also said on his YouTube channel, “I can understand Shubman Gill’s situation because he is travelling. I can also understand KL Rahul’s situation. But Yashasvi Jaiswal has no game time at all, right? I am not talking from a perspective of just handling Jaiswal opportunities.

India’s Preparation the New Zealand Test Series

After announcing the squad on Friday evening, the selection committee made it clear that Test matches are the priority now. India has a chance of qualifying for the World Test Championship (WTC) final, but Gill and his team cannot afford a single loss on the tour to New Zealand.

Prasidh Krishna, KL Rahul, Anshul Kamboj will all be a part of the squad for the first three ODIs and they will later be withdrawn from the team for the last matches to get practice for the red ball matches. Jaiswal too will be practising by playing for India A but Ashwin believes that there can be no substitute as playing in an international match.

In the last three ODI matches that Jaiswal played for Team India, he scored two centuries - one against South Africa and the other against Afghanistan. However, he has since not found his place in the side as veteran Rohit Sharma and captain Shubman Gill continue to be openers. The 24-year-old Mumbai lad is currently playing for India in only one format, i.e., in test matches.