India Head Coach Gautam Gambhir opened up on Ruturaj Gaikwad and Yashasvi Jaiswal's ODI future after the three-match ODI series against South Africa. India won the three-match series 2-1 and both Ruturaj Gaikwad and Yashasvi Jaiswal's scored hundred in second and third ODI respectively. Both Ruturaj and Jaiswal came as replacement for injured Shreyas Iyer and Shubman Gill. The duo grabbed the opportunity with both hands.
In the post match press conference, Gautam Gambhir ended up praising the duo and said that they grabbed the opportunity with both hands. He also said that the management will try to give them chances as and when possible.
He said, "The World Cup is two years away, but it's important that young boys coming into the set-up to stay in the present and grabbing their opportunities. Someone like Ruturaj, who batted out of position, but he's a quality player. We wanted to give him an opportunity in this series because the kind of form he was in with India A. And he actually grabbed that opportunity with both hands."
"Getting a hundred in the second game, when we were under pressure, actually we were 40-2 [62-2] and then getting that kind of hundred was proper quality. And Yashasvi as well, we've seen him how much quality he is, especially what he does in test cricket. And obviously it's just the start of his career, especially in white ball cricket. Hopefully he has a massive future ahead and so is Ruturaj," Gambhir added.
"We're trying and giving them opportunities whenever we can. Because we still want a reasonable group of players, around 20-25 good players in that group before the World Cup. Whenever they get an opportunity, both the guys need to grab that with both their hands. But once the captain and vice-captain are back, they are our starters. But yes, what they had to do, they've done that. And more importantly, I think they need to keep themselves motivated because they should be ready whenever they get that opportunity," Gambhir concluded.
