By News18
Rajasthan Royals (RR) director of cricket Kumar Sangakkara has revealed that Yashasvi Jaiswal had a unique nickname at the franchise 鈥 Joeswal 鈥 because of his closeness to England batter Joe Root. Sangakkara said Jaiswal sometimes spent hours asking questions to Root, or 鈥榡ust open-mouth listening鈥 to him.
Root was part of RR in 2023. It was also Jaiswal鈥檚 breakout and best season so far, with the left-hander smashing 625 runs at an average of 48.08, with a strike-rate of 163.61. It went a long way in him getting his India caps across formats, and now becoming a regular in Tests.
鈥淓very young cricketer that I come across has that same passion,鈥 Sangakkara said on Sky Sports. 鈥淭he only thing is they do understand what鈥檚 on offer and how to navigate that cricketing landscape and the changing of it. So I think careers will come down, the span of careers will come down, and we鈥檙e seeing it already, and I don鈥檛 think it鈥檚 gonna be any different for Jaiswal, especially when he has to manage his body and his workload. But we had Joe Root at Rajasthan Royals and we used to call Jaiswal, Joeswal, because he never left Joe鈥檚 side and soaking up everything,鈥 he added.
One of the world鈥檚 best batters, Root, never got the trust of IPL franchises. Even for RR, he featured in three games but got to bat just once. However, it didn鈥檛 stop him from mentoring Jaiswal.
鈥淎nd they weren鈥檛 talking just T20, they were talking about everything cricket and life, and he would sit right next to Joe for about 4 hours every night and just pester him with questions or just open-mouth listening to Root. Root was absolutely brilliant in our environment and he鈥檚 learned so much and that鈥檚 another aspect of Jaiswal, he鈥檚 a fast learner and he wants to learn,鈥 Sangakkara added.
Jaiswal and Root are currently playing against each other in the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy. Jaiswal missed out on a second century of the series by 13 runs, getting out for 87 in the Edgbaston Test.
India ended the innings at 587 before England were reduced for 77/3. Root held fort alongside Harry Brook, with the duo batting at 18 and 30, respectively.