4 ducks in 9 innings: Jaiswal fails again in India A series ahead of NZ Tests

Yashavi Jaiswal fell for a four-ball duck against New Zealand in the second unofficial Test. (BCCI)

India opener Yashasvi Jaiswal’s woeful form continued as he fell for a four-ball duck in the second unofficial Test between India A and New Zealand at the Hagley Oval in Christchurch on Saturday.

Opening the batting after NZ A elected to field, Jaiswal was dismissed in the first over by seamer Fraser Sheat. The India A innings found some solidity when No. 3 Devdutt Padikkal and opener Sai Sudharsan put on 91 runs for the second wicket. While Sudharsan fell on 41, Padikkal extended his superb scoring form with a 140-ball 80 before India A suffered a middle-order collapse, reducing them to 137 for five.

However, it is Jaiswal’s dipping form that will be of concern for India ahead of the two-match Test series against the Kiwis, beginning at the Basin Reserve in Wellington on November 19.

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The 24-year-old has not hit a half-century in the red-ball format since August. In the previous four-day game against New Zealand A last week, Jaiswal registered scores of 17 and 5. The left-hander opened the batting for Mumbai in their Ranji Trophy season opener against Chandigarh at home earlier this month and fell for a 13-ball duck.

Since the Sri Lanka tour, Jaiswal has recorded four ducks in nine successive innings. In the first Test against Sri Lanka in Galle, Jaiswal fell for a duck in the second innings. Across three innings in the drawn series, Jaiswal gathered 77 runs. He had also registered a blob in the practice game against the SLC XI prior to that Test.

Jaiswal recently made India’s ODI squad against the West Indies but was benched for all three matches. He was, however, omitted from the ODI side for the five-match series against the New Zealand, starting on November 4 in Auckland.