How Yashasvi found inner Jais-Wall to add another arrow in India’s ODI quiver
Visakhapatnam (PTI): Over 0.6: Yashasvi Jaiswal shouldered the arms as Marco Jansen’s tempting ball outside the off-stump found a safe passage to Quinton de Kock’s gloves.
Jaiswal did not attempt to play the cut. Jansen had a knowing smile, and De Kock clapped in mock appreciation.
It was a significant moment in the series-deciding third ODI against South Africa, which India eventually danced to a 9-wicket win. It was the earliest sign of Jaiswal’s transformed mindset.
It was an open statement: Tonight he would not be playing that edgy 'Jais-ball' from ball one, and will make most of a chance that came his way because of an injury to Shubman Gill, the original opener and also the regular skipper of the side.
That edginess and urge to dominate bowlers had consumed Jaiswal at Ranchi and Raipur, but here he eschewed all such thoughts.
When Proteas new ball bowlers tightened their lines, Jaiswal responded by leaving the ball and showing the patience to carry his bat. He seemed to have understood the rhythm of one-day cricket better now.
Head coach Gautam Gambhir touched on it.
"When you come into white-ball cricket from red-ball cricket, you think you have to bat aggressively. But you don't have to play aggressively because if you split the one-day format into 30 overs and 20 overs, it will be very easy. If you play 30 overs as ODIs, and the quality that Jaiswal has, if he bats for 30 overs, he will be batting close to 100. Even after that, you have 20 overs left, which you can look at as a T20 match."
It is only about finding a template. This was just Jaiswal's fourth game. The moment he figures out which tempo he needs to bat in one-day cricket, the sky is the limit," Gambhir said.
Jaiswal’s maiden ODI hundred here pre-validated Gambhir’s view.
The 23-year-old’s first fifty came in 75 balls, while getting some expert guidance from Rohit Sharma at the non-striker's end.
But the next 50 runs arrived in 35 balls, as the left-hander played a more familiar game.
In the phase between 22 and 26.1 overs, Jaiswal faced 11 balls and struck six boundaries to make a total 27 runs.
It was a thrilling maximisation of the platform he laid for himself with patience early on.
The calculated acceleration might have made Virat Kohli, with whom Jaiswal added 116 runs here, proud as this was an innings straight out of his playbook.
Patience will also be Jaiswal's biggest ally in the next few months as he wouldn't know when his next ODI appearance will be. Skipper Gill is fit for New Zealand series in January and after that India play a ODI game in July 2026 during the away series against England where Jaiswal can only fit in if one among skipper and veteran KL Rahul get injured.
Gill and, possibly, Shreyas Iyer too will be back for the ODI series against New Zealand next month, and Jaiswal is currently not in the national T20I scheme of things.
So, he might just have to play the waiting game. But Gambhir looked at the larger picture of creating a stronger pool of players for bigger assignments in future.
“Look, try and give them opportunities wherever we can because we still want a reasonable group of players — probably around 20-25 players before the (2027) World Cup. But once your captain and vice-captain is back, obviously they are your starters.
“But yes, what they had to do, they've done. More importantly, I think they need to keep themselves motivated because they should be ready whenever they get that opportunity, and grab that,” Gambhir explained.
Jaiswal ticked a box in the third ODI with his maidan ton and Ruturaj Gaikwad chipped in with a hundred at Raipur, leaving Gambhir pleased as punch.
“It's important that young boys come into the setup, grabbing their opportunities. Yashasvi…we’ve seen how much quality he has, especially what he does in Test cricket.
“Obviously, it's just the start of his career in white ball cricket. Hopefully, he has a massive future ahead,” he added.
And it will be closely knitted with India’s too.
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Rupee rebounds from record low; gains 1.6 pc to 93.19 against US dollar
Mumbai (PTI): The rupee recovered 151 paise from its record low level to trade at 93.19 against the US dollar in early deals on Thursday, backed by the Reserve Bank's move to restrict banks' net open position in the onshore forward delivery market.
The domestic unit, however, faced pressure due to unabated withdrawal of foreign capital, strengthening dollar and rising crude oil prices amid volatile geopolitical situation, forex analysts said.
At the interbank foreign exchange, the rupee opened at 94.62 and rose sharply to 93.19 against the US dollar in early deals, registering a gain of 151 paise or 1.6 per cent from its previous close.
The local currency breached the 95 level on Monday before closing at 94.70 versus the greenback. It had settled at a historic low of 94.84 against dollar on Friday, prompting the RBI to intervene.
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Through its circular dated March 27, 2026, RBI capped the net open position on the Indian rupee for banks at USD 100 million, mandating compliance by April 10.
Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, was trading 0.32 per cent higher at 99.77.
Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, was trading at USD 106.06 per barrel, up 4.84 per cent, in futures trade.
On the domestic equity market front, Sensex tumbled 1,312.91 points or 1.80 per cent to 71,821.41 in early trade, while the Nifty slumped 410.45 points or 1.81 per cent to 22,383.40.
Foreign institutional investors sold equities worth Rs 8,331.15 crore on a net basis on Wednesday, according to exchange data.
"The high crude price, the widening trade deficit, the fear of declining remittances and sustained FPI selling are acting cumulatively to put high pressure on the rupee," said VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Investments Limited.
Since the beginning of the West Asia war on February 28, 2026, the rupee has depreciated over 4 per cent. During the fiscal year ended March 2026, the currency has declined nearly 10 per cent against the US dollar.
Government data released on Wednesday showed that the government's GST revenues grew about 9 per cent in March, scaling to the pre-tax cut level of over Rs 2 lakh crore, the third highest monthly collection in the 2025-26 fiscal, buoyed by mop-ups from imports as well as domestic sales and purchases.
