“I won’t play it” - Dale Steyn offers a piece of advice to Yashasvi Jaiswal

Former South Africa legendary pacer Dale Steyn has stated that the Indian opening batter Yashasvi Jaiswal should temporarily stop playing the cut shot, just like how Sachin Tendulkar decided not to play off-drive at the SCG in Australia. 

Speaking exclusively on JioHotstar, the former speedster has asserted that Jaiswal played a bit of a false shot against Marco Jansen on the fourth day’s play to lose his wicket. Notably, Jaiswal could score only 13 runs in 20 balls before getting out to a cut shot off Jansen.

“It’s his go-to shot, and breaking that instinct is tough. When you see the ball in your zone, you go for it. But maybe it’s something he needs to consciously cut down on. I remember Sachin once removing the drive from his game in Australia. Jaiswal may also need to say, ‘Unless it’s in a specific area, I won’t play it. In this area, I’ll trust my defence’,” Dale Steyn said on JioHotstar.

“It was a bit of a false shot by Jaiswal. It’s his default option; he likes playing that shot. He is probably so used to right-arm bowlers angling the ball across him that playing that shot feels natural. But with Marco Jansen being a left-armer, it looks like the ball will angle away and give him room, but very often it’s tighter than he expects,” he added.

“That’s why he sometimes drags the ball back onto his stumps or edges it. As it pitches, it often straightens instead of going across, and that’s how it finds the edge, either side of the bat, leading to bowled, caught in slips, or caught behind,” he concluded.

After suffering a 30-run defeat to the Proteas in the first Test in Kolkata, India are on the verge of a cleansweep by 0-2 in the two-match Test series to South Africa.

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