Shubman Gill kicked aside! Yashasvi Jaiswal backed to become 'GOAT' by Ex-India stars

India opener Yashasvi Jaiswal has had a fantastic start to his international career. The youngster from Mumbai is just 23 years old but is already seen as a future star. Jaiswal has taken both the Tests and T20Is by storm and is touted to be the next big thing in Indian cricket along with Shubman Gill.

Former India cricketers Sanjay Manjrekar and Sanjay Bangar hailed Jaiswal and Gill in a recent conversation on Star Sports. Both the youngsters were compared with Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, who are in the end stages of their careers.

However, both the experts picked Jaiswal as the one who can go on to become a great cricketer. The 23-year-old received praise for his hunger and versatility which makes him such a highly rated cricketer of the current generation.

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Yashasvi Jaiswal has "trait for a GOAT": Sanjay Manjrekar

During a segment on Star Sports, Sanjay Manjrekar heaped praises on Yashasvi Jaiswal and called him the one for the future. He lauded Jaiswal's appetite to score big runs and praised his versatile approach depending on the situation of the game.

“People who have watched him closely think he’s one for the future. The way he’s started—scoring big runs—shows his hunger. He’s not just content with a hundred in Test cricket; he’s getting big hundreds," Manjrekar observed.

"He has a greed for runs at the highest level. If you want him to play for a draw, he can do that too. He plays late, uses the back foot well, and is capable of scoring on foreign pitches. That’s the most important trait for a GOAT," he added.

Sanjay Bangar backs Yashasvi Jaiswal

Sanjay Bangar also echoed Manjrekar's sentiments and spoke about the emergence of both Shubman Gill and Yashasvi Jaiswal as the successors of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma. He believes that both Gill and Jaiswal have set the trend in the current generation of Indian cricket.

“They’re in the same age group as Virat (Kohli) and Rohit (Sharma) were in 2013. Yashasvi (Jaiswal) is a little younger, but the difference is just a few years. They’ve both had remarkable starts in international cricket, so I think they’re the new-generation trendsetters of Indian cricket," said Bangar.

"The early signs indicate Yashasvi Jaiswal could be the one, provided fitness remains on his side. His temperament is solid. He’ll be one of India’s biggest run-scorers and match-winners in the future," Bangar picked Jaiswal to be the future star of India's batting order.

Yashasvi Jaiswal's incredible numbers

Yashasvi Jaiswal has received a brilliant start to his Test career having scored 1798 runs in 19 Tests so far at an average of 52.88. The 23-year-old left-hander has struck 4 hundreds and 10 fifties in his Test career so far.

Jaiswal was recently the highest run-getter for India in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy despite playing Test cricket on Australian soil for the first time ever. Overall, he scored 1478 runs in 15 Tests in 2024 at an average of 54.74 and finished as the second-highest run-scorer behind Joe Root.

The opener has also played 23 T20Is in which he has scored 723 runs at an average of 36.15 and an impressive strike rate of 164.31. He is yet to make his ODI debut but is included in India's squad for the Champions Trophy 2025 as the side's third opener.