Navjot Singh Sidhu names young India star as the new Virender Sehwag

Navjot Singh Sidhu, the former Indian cricketer, has come forward to praise the Indian youngster Yashasvi Jaiswal for his quickfire innings at The Oval, drawing comparisons to the legendary Virender Sehwag.

The India vs England final Test at the Oval has marked a tragic end to both the Indian and English innings. The Indian batting collapsed over Day 1 and could manage only 224 runs in the first innings, losing the last 4 wickets in no time, while the English batters, who made a great start with the openers overrunning things, were bundled up for a score of 247.

The Indian batters who came into bat in the second innings looked no different until Yashasvi Jaiswal took charge and kept hitting the ball off to the fence on multiple occasions.

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Navjot Singh Sidhu draws parallels between Jaiswal and Virender Sehwag

Former Indian opener Navjot Singh Sidhu has lavished high praise on new Indian opening sensation Yashasvi Jaiswal during the ongoing fifth Test at The Oval. This Test acts as a decider for the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy.

The 61-year-old shared a video on his YouTube channel mentioning Jaiswal, where he lauded his splendid striking with a free heart and labeled him as an opener with a glimpse of the batting great Virender Sehwag's intent in him.

“The way he (Jaiswal) played those cuts, the cover drive, and especially that stroke between mid-on and midwicket shows how quickly he gets into position. He has so much time. I can say that after Sunil Gavaskar, if any opener has come close to the impact of Virender Sehwag, it is Yashasvi Jaiswal," Sidhu drawing great parallels.

"He has scored double hundreds and hundreds and done so at a pace that gives bowlers no time to settle while putting his team in a winning position.”

“If I had to rate him, his average was around 52 before this series, and now it will be close to 49 or 50. When your average remains near or above 50 even after playing 20 to 30 Test matches, you are considered a great player,” he added.

Navjot Singh Sidhu in all praise for young Indian opener

After praising Jaiswal's ability as a batter, he focused on praising his intent in the second innings of the Oval Test, where other Indian batters struggled and he got off to a quickfire half-century with a strike rate of over a hundred.

“Yashasvi Jaiswal’s fifty today was priceless. In these conditions, there could not have been a better innings. Some might say that he got a life because a catch was dropped, but if you look at how that catch was dropped, you’ll understand. It was such a powerful slash, and the ball that went toward Brook was travelling at the speed of knots.”

“And the pull shot he played toward square leg was brilliant. His special quality is the back-and-across movement, which gives him that little extra time. Then he plays with complete flow, fully aware that he could get out anytime in such conditions,” Navjot Singh Sidhu further added.

Navjot Singh Sidhu justifies Gautam Gambhir's extra batter move

The beginning of the Oval Test was marked by severe criticism for Gautam Gambhir since he decided to play with an additional batter on the side instead of going with Kuldeep Yadav for the final Test.

“Today, Gautam Gambhir’s decision to play an extra batsman was completely justified. As soon as the new day began and Karun Nair got out early, what followed was just a string of low scores. The last three or four batsmen offered nothing with the bat,” said Navjot Singh Sidhu.

“Even Washington Sundar was caught in a dilemma, unsure whether to take a single or not, and ended up getting out while trying to play a pull shot. As a result, the innings got stuck at 224, when it looked like it could have easily reached 300. That shift in momentum went in England’s favour,” he added.

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