Former India player Aakash Chopra has praised Yashasvi Jaiswal for playing a match-winning knock in the Rajasthan Royals’ (RR) IPL 2025 match against PBKS. He also expressed happiness about the RR opener’s return to form, saying that he had predicted the youngster to be in Orange Cap contention as well. Jaiswal scored 67 runs off 45 deliveries.

Reflecting on RR’s batting in a video shared on his YouTube channel ‘Aakash Chopra,’ he said, “The excellent news is that Yashasvi is back in form. He is a mighty player, but he was having difficulties against the short ball. Here too, he was almost caught once, but thank god he wasn’t. He played extremely well. It was a personal thing for me as well as I thought he would be in the Orange Cap race, that he would be among the top three run-getters, and I felt it was over when he started like that (in the tournament).”

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“He got out to Lockie Ferguson for sure, but he scored important runs. Actually, the opening partnership with Sanju Samson – if you win the powerplay, don’t lose a wicket, and your openers stay for 10 overs, you will be restricted to 170-175 only if you play very badly. If you play well, you will go beyond 200, and that’s what happened,” he again shared.

However, Aakash Chopra also praised Riyan Parag for striking a few great shots and making sure that the RR crossed the 200-run mark as well.

“In the end, there was some incredible hitting by Riyan Parag, and he showed that he is actually a special player. When he gets going, he bats very well. He struck clean hits and took the team beyond 200. Lockie Ferguson was brilliant. He bowled extremely well,” Aakash Chopra concluded.