In any form of cricket, start is a key word, more so for a batter. This is a phase when he or she is uncertain of a lot of things. The feet may be hesitant. Conditions can be unfamiliar and feel of the pitch minimal. Contact with bat and ball can also be on and off. Sometimes, it is more off than on. And then, once that start has been achieved, it has to be capitalised on.
For starters, that was the story of Day 1 in the India-England second Test in Visakhapatnam. It was a tale of two parts. One saw Yashasvi Jaiswal make the most of it after he had played himself in. Two, which saw batter after batter throw away the starts they got. As result, India left their fate hanging in the balance instead of driving home the advantage of batting first in near-perfect conditions.
Jaiswal has always been highly rated, ever since he started playing for the Indian U-19 team. It was known that he has a range of shots on both sides of the wicket, off the front and back foot. He is adventurous too, unafraid to go after the bowlers. Not many bring up a Test hundred with a six. The opener also gives the impression that he cares little about the reputation of the bowlers.
But despite a 171 on debut in the West Indies, his temperament was not fully known. It had to be seen whether he could carry on and bat through a day. The dismissal for 80 in the first Test didn’t impress many. On Friday, after a miscued heave flew above point soon after he reached three figures, Jaiswal regrouped. It became evident that he was determined to convert this into a big one. An unbeaten 179 off 257 balls bore testimony to that temperament.
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A stellar, unbeaten century by opener Yashasvi Jaiswal makes his our player of the day on the opening day of the Vizag Test between India and England. #INDvENG #YashasviJaiswal #IndiaVsEngland @lalbabarice @CricSubhayan pic.twitter.com/vg8dBn88YD
— RevSportz (@RevSportz) February 2, 2024
This was in contrast with what was seen at the other end. They got settled and then went back without even posting a single half-century. The repeated failures of Shubman Gill and Shreyas Iyer are bound to raise eyebrows and questions. We shall come to them later. Truth be told, all six batters who got out were guilty of inadequate application. Maybe Rajat Patidar, the debutant, was a bit unlucky to see the ball roll back towards the stumps after he appeared to have defended it properly.
That was the difference between Jaiswal and the rest. They all got starts and failed to carry on. Not that the modes of dismissal were similar, but the underlying theme was the same. Most of those were soft dismissals, including captain Rohit Sharma’s. Think about it, other than James Anderson and part-time off-spinner Joe Root, the combined experience of the remainder of the English attack is six Tests. Yet, three greenhorns accounted for five batters bred in these conditions.
That enhances the value of this Jaiswal effort. He is pleasing to the eye, but not reckless. He puts a price on his wicket and doesn’t like throwing it away after getting in. Not without reason does he have a century in T20Is and a double-century in List-A cricket. His first-class average is above 70. To achieve all this at 22 shows he knows the importance of cashing in on starts.
In Indian cricket, it seems to be a rare trait at the moment, especially in the absence of Virat Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara. Those two seldom got out in the thirties or twenties and more often than not, converted starts into something substantial. Among the new generation, the youngest of the lot seems to be endowed with that quality. He might be India’s biggest hope with the bat in this series.
Also Read: Yashasvi Jaiswal’s unbeaten 179 saves the day for India in Vizag Test