Rohit Sharma batted for just 30 minutes in the last five days at the nets prior to the Test match against the West Indies, while his fellow opening partner, Yashasvi Jaiswal, batted for more than half an hour on each day since landing in the Caribbean Islands, except on the travelling day from Barbados to Dominica.
While the Indian captain is already on his way to becoming one of the legends of cricket, Jaiswal has just begun his journey in international cricket in spectacular style. Rohit is a right-handed batsman, while Jaiswal is a southpaw. While Rohit was never considered a typical khadoos (stubborn) batsman from the Mumbai school of batsmanship, the 21-year-old is a typical Khadoos despite being born and brought up in Uttar Pradesh.
In many ways, both Rohit and Yashasvi are contrasting kinds of batsmen who represent different generations in Indian cricket. And, yet, by coincidence, both got much-deserving and much-needed Test hundreds at Windsor Park in Rousseau. The second day was completely dominated by the new opening pair in Indian cricket, although both have never opened together for their state.
The Indian captain may not have played much cricket with Jaiswal, but he is going the extra mile to nurture the talent of the new entrant into Test cricket.
With Shubman Gill having established himself as an all-format batsman for India, Rohit knows that Jaiswal too has the potential to become a pillar of Indian batting in the future. In some ways, it is also a reflection of treating the upcoming talent the same way as the captain himself was treated by former India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
However, on a day when the young Jaiswal hogged the limelight, 36-year-old Rohit notched up the second-highest number of 50+ scores at 102 as an opener in international cricket after Sachin Tendulkar’s 120. And yet, Rohit will be prouder of his 10th century in Test cricket, playing his 50th match for a different reason.
As an opener, he is the most improved player in world cricket, as witnessed by his seven hundred and four fifties in just 39 innings. The captain, who had started his Test career with back-to-back hundreds against the West Indies a decade ago, managed just one more in his next 34 innings. That was the phase when he used to bat in the middle order.
However, the man who is a stone’s throw away from entering the 10,000 runs club in ODI cricket, was asked to open the innings in Test cricket as well and has become a very consistent performer. So much so that in the history of the World Test Championships, no one has scored more runs at a better average or more tonnes or fifties than Sharma. Even if you discount the fact that the West Indies are certainly not one of the most feared opponents, a century in the very first match of an away series must have been reassuring for the captain.
He is aware that a lot will depend on how his team performs in the World Cup, but he is trying to ensure that his captaincy in red-ball cricket cannot be questioned. If both Jaiswal and Rohit manage to play some more big innings in this series, India can be a little relieved ahead of the South Africa Test series in December where they are yet to win a Test series so far.
As the day was drawing to a close, Jaiswal faced the press for just a few minutes, visibly tired after playing a significant knock. He thanked his parents, coaches, and, of course, Rohit Bhaiya, who was guiding him throughout the innings. However, the Indian captain is not just taking care of his young opener on the field but off it as well. Rohit specifically requested this writer to keep the press conference short so that they could leave early for the hotel, which is an hour’s drive from the stadium.
Not only that, the captain waited alone in the team balcony to receive Jaiswal after his first-ever interaction as an India player got over. Although one could not hear the conversation between the two Mumbaikars, one can safely assume what Rohit must have asked him to do the next day -- aim for a double hundred on debut in an overseas Test as an opener, which no Indian has done so far.
In fact, Rohit scored his first and only double hundred after playing 50 innings, and if Jaiswal is able to pull it off in the very first innings of his career, you can be assured that there will be none happier than the Indian captain himself.
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