“Leaving Out Top Quality Is Difficult”: Stephen Fleming On India’s Decision To Drop Star Batter

Former New Zealand cricketer Stephen Fleming opened up on Team India leaving Yashasvi Jaiswal on the bench in the ongoing T20 World Cup 2024, and said that the Men in Blue had to make a hard call while making such a decision. Jaiswal is yet to make his debut in the ongoing T20 World Cup 2024 as the Men in Blue team management decided to go with Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli opening for the team. The 22-year-old made his T20I debut in 2023 against West Indies, following that he scored 502 runs after playing in 17 matches and 16 innings. In the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024, Jaiswal scored 435 runs after playing 15 matches for the Rajasthan Royals (RR).

Speaking exclusively to the ‘ESPNCricinfo Timeout show’, Fleming said that leaving out ‘top quality’ players is always difficult for a team. He also showered praise on the Men in Blue and said that they have spinners who can dominate in the West Indies.

“They had to make some hard calls. While Jaiswal was a great player, having a plan and you stay to it when you’ve got great players sitting on the sidelines is always very difficult because it’s tempting to keep looking where the grass is greener, but I like the job they’ve done, they’ve got through. This is a team that in some ways is picked for the finals in my view, it’s a team that has spinners that can dominate, it has players that can dominate spin and we’ve seen spin in the West Indies play quite a big part, not so much in New York,” Fleming was quoted by ESPNcricinfo as saying.

India will be aiming to do well against Afghanistan (June 20), Bangladesh (June 22) and Australia (24) and register big wins in order to qualify for the semifinals and end India’s drought for an ICC trophy since 2013’s Champions Trophy and also win their first T20 WC since 2007’s inaugural edition in South Africa.

The Men in Blue have displayed a stupendous performance in the group stage of the marquee event and finished at the top of the Group A table with seven points.

Squad: Rohit Sharma (C), Hardik Pandya, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Sanju Samson, Shivam Dube, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohd. Siraj.

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