A man possessed held an entire fragile Indian batting together to keep England at bay. Yashasvi Jaiswal was the lone ranger. He was the man among a team of boys who threw away wickets on loose deliveries. At the end of Day 1 of IND vs ENG 2nd Test, Yashasvi Jaiswal remained unbeaten on 179 when the next best knock was Shubman Gill’s 34 runs off 46 deliveries. Jaiswal did not just impress, he made a statement of his skills with his maiden ton at home. Now, he eyes his maiden double ton.
“I wanted to play it session by session. When they were bowling well, I just wanted to get through that spell. Initially, the wicket was damp and there was spin and bounce, with a bit of seam. However, I wanted to convert the loose balls, and play till the end. I would love to double this up, and play till the end for the team,” Yashasvi Jaiswal said after carrying his bat till Day 1 stumps.
Yashasvi Jaiswal, India’s only answer
With Virat Kohli, KL Rahul and Ravindra Jadeja all out of IND vs ENG 2nd Test, India needed a leader in batting.
All eyes were on Rohit Sharma to deliver. Yet, it was his Mumbai teammate who was the real leader in batting in Vizag on Friday. As Rohit Sharma accurately predicted Yashasvi Jaiswal would be the next superstar, he played exactly like one.
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Jaiswal’s 179 was India’s 53% of the runs scored on Day 1. It was only his 10th innings. But he varied his pace as wickets kept falling. He had 17 fours and five sixes in that knock which all but put India in control even as England dominated other batters. Yashasvi Jaiswal said that he wanted to take it session by session and pay back the confidence Rahul Dravid and Rohit Sharma showed in him.
“I want to recover well for tomorrow now. The pitch played a bit differently, in the morning it was a bit damp and then it settled. With the older ball, there was some bounce. Rahul sir and Rohit bhai kept giving me the confidence and told me to convert this into a big innings, and stay till the end,” Yashasvi Jaiswal said.