There’s something about the opening day of a Test match that gets Yashasvi Jaiswal’s juices flowing. On debut in Dominica last July, after R. Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja sent West Indies crashing to 150 all out, the left-hander eased to 40 not out at close of play, translating it to an eight-and-a-half-hour 171 the following day as he and skipper Rohit Sharma realised 229 for the first wicket.
In the next Test in Port of Spain, Jaiswal produced a more attacking 57 in another century opening stand with his captain. Last week in Hyderabad, he blazed to 76 at better than a run a ball but clearly, he had saved his best for Visakhapatnam, and day one of the second Test.
Jaiswal had been dismissed in the first over of the second day in the first Test, mentally kicking himself as he trudged back to the pavilion for 80. Determined not to look a gift horse in the mouth for the second game running, he compiled a monumental unbeaten 179 at the ACA-VDCA Stadium on Friday in a match India must win if they are to keep their hopes of a series victory against England alive.
In the space of three innings, Jaiswal has showcased two vastly different styles of play. In Hyderabad, he was the unfettered enforcer, welcoming debutant left-arm spinner Tom Hartley to the big league with a slog-swept six off the first ball of the innings’ second over. He followed it up with another six in the same over, not-so-subtly letting England know that while they might have ‘Bazball’, he had his own version of it.
Jaiswal was one of three Indians to be dismissed in the 80s in Hyderabad, which meant India’s first-innings advantage was 190, substantial but not decisive. Ollie Pope’s marvellous 196 and a tremendous pushback from England’s spinners meant the visitors pulled off a heist, by 28 runs, to grab an unexpected 1-0 advantage in the first-match series.
On Friday, Jaiswal was determined to make sure he wouldn’t be culpable of an encore. He had support right through his stint at the crease, but none of them was huge enough to put the game out of England’s reach. He was involved in five partnerships of between 40 and 90 for the first five wickets, but even so, if India only managed 336 for six at close of play, it was because no one else took a leaf out of his book, no one else displayed the greed and hunger and ambition that he draped himself in.
It wasn’t as if Jaiswal was content to wait for the loose balls to arrive; you can’t make 179 off 257 if that were the case. You wouldn’t boast 17 crisp fours and five towering sixes. You wouldn’t strike at 69.64 runs per 100 deliveries faced. You wouldn’t let the bowler know that he was in for a scrap. You simply wouldn’t.
But what Jaiswal did was being selective in which strokes to play, which balls to attack, which bowlers to target. He is only 22, but there nestles a maturity that’s way beyond his years. Perhaps some of it has to do with his backstory. He left interior Uttar Pradesh for the more cricket-friendly city of Mumbai when only 12 years old, sleeping in tents and single-mindedly pursuing his dream of becoming a cricketer worth his salt. Like most kids that age who thankfully don’t overthink and perhaps don’t know better, he was convinced that he would play for the country, even if at that early stage, he didn’t know what the pathways were which would take him to the promised land.
Gradually, step by steady and certain step, he made his way up through the charts, eventually breaking down the doors to selection with the mountain of runs that couldn’t be overlooked. A schooling at Rajasthan Royals, where he had the opportunity to pick the brains of some of the giants of the modern game, furthered his education and while he wasn’t the finished product when the India call-up came – no one can ever claim to be the finished product at any stage of their career – he was well prepared for the challenges that lay ahead, well aware that international cricket was a completely different beast but that he had done the hard yards and it was now time to cash in.
In his fledgling career for the country – this is his sixth Test, to go with 17 Twenty20 Internationals, where he boasts a highest of 100 – he has already set up a stall as one for the present and the future. There is a certain swag about him that seems to come naturally; and not unlike many young men of his age, he has a taste for good things, but he is also intelligent enough to understand that all the good things in life will only come his way if he continues to remain a successful cricketer.
In the judiciousness with which Jaiswal fused watchfulness and aggression on Friday, he revealed a shrewd and crafty cricketing brain that should stand him in good stead for a long, long time. His left-handedness at the top of the batting order is a tremendous asset, he is a terrific fielder as those breaking in now have to be, and there is a certain chutzpah and controlled arrogance that is hard to miss.
Late on Friday evening, as he was cramping up in his forearms, he sought the attention of the physio. Perhaps because there was only one ball left in the over, attention had to be delayed just a little bit. Whether that had any role to play in what happened next is debatable, though what can’t be denied is that he went down on one knee and clattered leggie Rehan Ahmed way over the sightscreen for the most humongous of sixes. A signature stroke, all right, but was it also a statement? Could be, because this generation is pretty big on statements, isn’t it?
For Jaiswal, this is just the beginning. Now that he has raised expectations – a giant century on Test debut, and a double century in his only second Test series in India – he will be under a bit of pressure to continue to deliver. Will that faze him? One suspects not.
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