Only a few months were left in the calendar year, 2019. With the winter season about to commence in most parts of India, a 17-year-old Yashasvi Jaiswal was plying his trade in the T20 Mumbai tournament. Batting at number 5, he was all geared up to face Shivam Dube, who by then had already donned the Indian colours. While facing the third ball of his innings, Jaiswal took a small stride forward. Subsequently, his back foot followed the front foot. Jaiswal took a couple more steps towards the bowler, and with his flashing blade, he cracked an eye-catching cut shot.
That he essayed the cut stroke wasn’t the essence of his batting. Instead, it was about how a 17-year-old showed no nerves right from the start of his innings. He crunched two more cuts off the same bowler. On both occasions, he went back and across after loading up on the front foot to collect boundaries. In other words, back foot play served as the foundation of his batting.
Time flies. Four years later, Jaiswal was all set to play a Test in unfamiliar climes in Centurion. By then, he had participated in the Under-19 World Cup. In one of the previous first-class seasons, Jaiswal had composed five tons. He had also represented India in limited-overs cricket, alongside compiling a hundred on his Test debut. So, there were high expectations that he would continue to shine brightly on the big stage. Unfortunately, he could only aggregate 50 runs in that two-match Test series in South Africa, with 22 of them coming at Centurion.
South Africans had also chiseled out a way of how to dismiss Jaiswal on faster wickets. On quicker wickets, Jaiswal’s back-and-across technique was put under scrutiny by Nandre Burger, the left-arm pacer. With the quicker tracks in South Africa offering less time to adjust and negate the movement, Jaiswal had fallen prey to one of those pitched-up deliveries from over the wicket.
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Although he accumulated a truckload of runs at home, one still wondered whether Jaiswal would be troubled by another left-arm pacer, in a five-match Test series, Down Under. Mitchell Starc, the experienced fast bowler, did just that by consistently removing Jaiswal with pitched-up deliveries in Perth, Adelaide, and in the first innings in Brisbane. Although, to his credit, Jaiswal did manage to accumulate a superlative century, in the second innings, in Perth.
With the rain-curtailed Gabba Test nearing its conclusion, Jaiswal walked out to bat for the second time in that game. In those few minutes, it was crystal clear that Jaiswal had decided to employ a different method – A couple of times, he walked down the pitch while facing Starc, his nemesis. The back and across movement also was not on view.
The mind started to tick again: ‘Is Jaiswal looking to modify his technique? Will he be able to make it work in such a short span of time?’ The answer to it was a firm yes. He went on to aggregate twin fifties in the MCG Test. It could have been more, but for a terrible mix-up with Virat Kohli in the first innings, resulting in Jaiswal’s run-out.
Nevertheless, those two fifties once again told something about Jaiswal’s temperament. It can’t be easy to change the batting template and make it work in the very next innings. It is true that he was still going back and across to play the cut. But the focus was definitely on coming forward in order to negotiate the threat of the full delivery. It is also true that on occasions Starc beat him on the outside edge, at both the MCG and SCG. Jaiswal, however, was able to find the erase button and forget the previous outcome at the MCG. He ended the series with a noteworthy average of 43.44 and 391 runs, in some tricky conditions for batting.
The salient feature of the 17-year-old Jaiswal or the current version remains the same – insatiable hunger to improve and score runs. Those attributes should also help the Indian opener to leave an indelible mark in the cricketing world.
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