Mens Skeleton Watch

Yashasvi Jaiswal's puffy Morrant pads may appear out of time but his intent and approach is perfectly in sync with modern T20 batting.

In the fourth T20I against Zimbabwe in Harare, Jaiswal clattered 15 boundaries in 53 balls on his way to an unbeaten 93, but it was a non-boundary that best exemplified his attacking intent. When Blessing Muzarabani, the most impactful bowler across both sides this series, took pace off and dug the old ball into the Harare pitch, Jaiswal shuffled across off and ended up falling on the floor, but was still aiming to scoop it over the keeper's head to the boundary.

Did he connect with the ball? No, but Jaiswal's intent to go hard - even on a pitch that was slowing down - and keep going hard was particularly striking. According to ESPNcricinfo's logs, Jaiswal was defensive against just two of the 53 balls he had faced.

In the past, a number of Indian openers had adopted a safety-first, risk-averse approach, but more recently when a certain opener committed to no-holds-barred hitting, India won the T20 World Cup.

India's new generation remains committed to that aggressive approach. When Jaiswal was part of the post-T20 World Cup celebrations in Mumbai, Abhishek Sharma stepped in and smacked a 46-ball hundred in what was only his second international innings. Then, once Jaiswal arrived in Zimbabwe, the incumbent opener took charge and dominated the powerplay across the third and fourth T20Is.

On Saturday, Jaiswal struck 47 of India's 61 runs in the powerplay, in their pursuit of 153. He stayed leg-side of the ball and laced Tendai Chatara over the massed off-side field. When Chatara erred too full, he stretched forward and pumped it down the ground. When Muzarabani and Richard Ngarava slammed the ball on a hard length or a Test-match length, Jaiswal stood tall and heaved them over the field, despite losing his shape.

Jaiswal is the only India batter other than Rohit Sharma to have scored more than 50 runs in the powerplay in T20Is. In November last year, he had cracked 53 off 25 balls in the powerplay to set India up for a total of 235 for 4 against Australia in Thiruvananthapuram.

"I think it [batting approach] depends on the wicket and the bowling also and where I want to play because if there's a lot of bounce I try to play my shots - the cut and the pull," Jaiswal said after Saturday's game against Zimbabwe. "If the wicket is not like that, I just try to hit hard and straight. I always keep trying and challenge myself to play different, different shots."

Jaiswal has been working on strengthening his body to pack more power into these shots. "I think I'm working on my body consistently," Jaiswal said. "I work a lot on my legs and core and scapula if I want to hit. Consistency is really important; it's so easy to say but it's hard to it, I think. I'm trying my best every single day.

"I think I really enjoyed [batting] today. The wicket was pretty good and I had some plans for different bowlers and I was just trying to play all my shots where I can play and I really enjoyed today's innings."

Jaiswal had had a hectic build-up to this series - he has been in three different time zones over the past week in the West Indies, India, and now Zimbabwe - but he hasn't let that affect his intensity.

"I'm think I'm really blessed and grateful to get all these opportunities and when you win the World Cup, it's just an incredible feeling," Jaiswal said. "I really enjoyed that and when I joined the team…I'm really honoured to play for my country."

India's team management has sent some mixed signals by force-fitting four openers in the top four in this series. But, among the lot, Jaiswal has pulled further ahead as India's first-choice opener in T20Is though these are still early days yet in the run-up to the 2026 T20 World Cup.