IND v ENG Test: Can Yashasvi Jaiswal match & exceed Sunil Gavaskar’s record 774 runs in a single series?

Jaiswal’s latest masterpiece came on the back of a splendid 209 in the previous Test in Visakhapatnam, a fortnight back. Then, like now, however, he was upstaged in the Player of the Match stakes. If it was Jasprit Bumrah who sauntered away with the honours in the City of Destiny, then Ravindra Jadeja’s all-round brilliance nudged him to that award in his hometown. Bizarre, right?

But Jaiswal isn’t complaining. He knows that if his career continues to progress organically, these awards will come his way on a regular basis. Oh, and perhaps he will tone down his milestone-heralding celebrations…

Just about the only time Jaiswal looked in any discomfort during his epic in Rajkot was in the immediacy of bringing up three-figures on Saturday evening, when he contracted back spasms. Whether that had anything to do with his leap is debatable. What is not, is that he was forced to retire hurt on 104.

When he resumed on the fourth morning after the unfortunate run out of Shubman Gill, Jaiswal looked none the worse for wear. Impressively, he didn’t start off as if he was batting on 104. It was a new day, a new beginning, and he began as if he was at the start of his innings, kicking off from zero. It was a move that paid off handsomely. After a few deliveries getting his eye in, he opened out like only he can, amalgamating sublime timing with unalloyed power-hitting to destroy England’s bowling attack.

When has anyone ever smashed James Anderson, playing his 185th Test, for three successive sixes? Short answer: Never. Or rather, never before. Jaiswal, who had clubbed the legendary swing exponent the previous evening in a sequence that read 6, 4, 4, went one better on Sunday. Even Anderson couldn’t help a grudging, respectful smile as the wispy left-hander, 19 years younger, took him to the cleaners in a mind-boggling exhibition of crisp, risk-free aerial pyrotechnics.

Kohli’s successive doubles came in November 2017, when he followed up 213 against Sri Lanka in Nagpur with 243 a week later in New Delhi. At that stage, the then Indian captain had completed six years in Test cricket. Coming into Rajkot, Jaiswal had played a mere six Tests. To find himself breathing the same rarefied air as the greatest Indian batsman of his generation must be surreal for the youngster who is destined for great things if he keeps his head on his shoulders, his feet on the ground and his ravenous appetite for runs intact.

Jaiswal is every inch the modern-day batsman for whom time spent in the middle must be measured by runs against the name. He isn’t the classical Test match opener of yore who gave the first hour, if not the first session, to the bowlers, got his eye in, had a measure of the pitch and the conditions, and only then started to express himself, but still cautiously. He is also not in the Virender Sehwag mould because, let’s face it, no one can be. But Jaiswal is the archetypal new-age willow-wielder, strong in the basics instilled in him by his first coach and honed in the maidans of Mumbai, but who knows that a slap on the wrist or a box in the ears from his coach isn’t imminent when he takes the aerial route.

In times gone by, most batsmen would see a fielder at long-on and be content that an easy single was on offer down the ground. Jaiswal belongs to a breed that spots the deep fielder but backs himself to clear him, comfortably, because such is the confidence he has in his ball-striking abilities. Like England’s batsmen have been practicing the sweep and the reverse sweep for hours on end over the last two years, Jaiswal and his contemporaries specialise in what is called range hitting – smiting the ball long and far through a combination of timing and brute power garnered by spending hours at the gym pumping iron and strengthening the biceps and the forearms.

Read more: How to hit a pull shot like Shubman Gill: muscles involved, exercises, coordination

Sitting in the changing room, watching someone like Jaiswal go about his business, must be extremely unnerving for head coach Rahul Dravid, hailing from a generation in whom it was drilled in to put a price on one’s wicket. Indeed, at one stage on Saturday evening, a reserve strode in with a pair of gloves and a message from the team management, ostensibly asking Jaiswal to be a little more judicious in shot selection. In the very next over, Jaiswal uncorked two extraordinary reverse sweeps. The look on Dravid’s face, sheepish smile and all, was priceless. There truly are some things money can’t buy.

To say that the sky’s the limit for Jaiswal will be no exaggeration. In three Tests, he has already amassed 545 runs. The most runs by an Indian in a single Test series is Sunil Gavaskar’s 774, gleaned in his very first series, in the Caribbean in 1971. Now, how special will it be if Jaiswal can score 230 more runs, at least, and leave his more illustrious and celebrated Mumbaikar behind? No one will be more pleased than Gavaskar himself, the breaker of records galore who holds the firmest conviction that records are made to be broken.