Yashasvi Jaiswal is no stranger when it comes to breaking records and reaching milestones. However, his latest feat may be the most unique of them all. After the conclusion of the recent five-match series against England, Yashasvi Jaiswal has now played the first 24 Test matches of his career in 24 different venues across the globe – a mind-boggling anomaly.
From his debut at Windsor Park in Roseau, Dominica, to his last Test at the Kennington Oval in London, not once has Yashasvi Jaiswal returned to the same venue or played on the same ground twice. Apart from home Tests in India, Yashasvi Jaiswal, who plays for Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League, has shone in away matches in the West Indies, South Africa, Australia and England, which is a testament to his adaptability in different conditions.
The southpaw began his career with a 171 against the West Indies on debut at Windsor Park and struck another fifty before the end the series. Yashasvi Jaiswal then toured South Africa before playing his first home series against England in 2024, when he truly came of age by scoring two double tons as India registered a 4-1 win. He also has one Test century in Australia and two in England.
Overall, the classy southpaw has scored 2209 runs in 24 Tests at an average of over 50. He has six centuries and 12 fifties to his name in the format with a highest score of 214. In the cricketing landscape where players often build records at fortress venues, Yashasvi’s achievement stands out as a career that has been on the move since day one.
Yashasvi Jaiswal coming off age in Australia and England
In Australia, Yashasvi Jaiswal was India’s top run-getter with 391 runs in 10 innings at an average of 43.44, with a century and two fifties to his name. His best score was a 297-ball 161 at Perth’s Optus Stadium. His verbal duel with Mitchell Starc, the Aussie pace legend, irked and excited the cricketing fraternity equally.
Some took it for his youthful audacity, which added spice to the rivalry, especially when the Aussie media termed him an ‘heir apparent to Virat Kohli, a man who made a career out of bullying Australians. Others deerned Yashasvi Jaiswal a little too cocky and disrespectful towards a multi-time World Cup-winning star on his first tour to the Aussie land.
After a duck dismissal against Starc to start his Australian tour, Jaiswal responded with a massive 161. Throughout the series against Starc, Yashasvi Jaiswal made 133 runs out of his 391 runs in 203 balls at a strike rate of over 65. He scored 20 of his boundaries and a six out of 44 fours and four sixes, just for the Aussie left-armer, never missing a chance to treat him with disdain.
While he blew hot and cold in the next two Tests, his fighting knocks of 82 and 84 at Melbourne during the Boxing Day Test gave India a faint hope of keeping the series alive. With 391 runs in Australia, Yashasvi Jaiswal arrived in England a much more respected figure and with plenty of expectations, especially after a 712-run series against the same opposition at home with two double tons, where he tore the English bowling apart to smithereens. A highlight included a hat-trick of sixes against James Anderson.
So, a much lighter, inexperienced bowling attack of Josh Tongue, Gus Atkinson, Brydon Carse, Chris Woakes, and skipper Ben Stokes looked like a quick snack for the left-hander. His first innings at Leeds saw him cut and slash deliveries with the precision of a ninja. While he played his delightful drives down the ground or through the covers region, the crunch of the ball sounded melodic to the ears.
Yashasvi Jaiswal middling the bat and ball sailing interrupted to the boundary was like an artist running his pen like butter over a piece of paper to produce a beautiful piece of handwriting.He struck a century in his first Test in England, just like he had done in the West Indies and Australia. But poor shot selection in the next innings cut short his innings at four. Then in Birmingham, he crafted a brilliant 107-ball 87, falling to English skipper Stokes while going for a lavish slash.
During the second innings, Yashasvi Jaiswal started with fluency, but fell leg-before-wicket rather quickly for 28, before he could settle. At Lord’s, he could score just 13 and 0, falling victim to a returning Jofra Archer, exposing himself badly against express pace.
While in the first innings he edged it to the slips, a top-edge while playing a big shot dismissed him for a seven-ball duck, giving India a big blow while chasing just 193, which proved costly in hindsight. Perhaps some situational awareness and care could have helped a 20-something run.
It seemed Yashasvi Jaiswal had sipped into the ‘Bazball’ kool-aid, which unsettled him against a fiery Archer. In the fourth Manchester Test, Yashasvi Jaiswal made a fighting 107-ball 58, with 10 fours and a six, slowly returning to his scoring ways, but his ‘caught at slips’ woes continued, gifting the slip cordon their third freebie of the series and falling for a duck. The match ended in a draw.
At The Oval, another cheap dismissal in the first innings continued to frustrate the Indians, as he had more failures than big scores at that point. With England leading by 23 runs going into India’s second innings, Jaiswal put pressure right from the start with quick boundaries, but maintained restraint when needed. The result was one of his finest Test tons, 118 in 164 balls, giving India a 373-run lead and England a 374-run target.
England lost the match by six runs. In five matches, Jaiswal scored 411 runs at an average of 41.10, with two centuries and two fifties. His best score was 118 and was the ninth-highest run-getter in the series. During the series, he fared decently against the veterans, scoring 73 runs off Chris Woakes in 134 balls across nine innings, dismissed only once, striking at 54.47 with 14 fours.
Against Stokes, while he was dismissed twice in three innings, he still managed to score a total of 32 runs against him in 50 balls, striking at 64.00, with four boundaries and a six. The high-risk nature of his game makes him vulnerable, but his scoring rates reflect that he is not afraid to be at the wrong side of things with his attacking approach.
The big boys being shown disdain is a constant throughout these two tours to Australia and the UK, regardless of how much they dismiss them. Former Australian skipper Michael Clarke minced no words in lauding the young left hander opener in Yashasvi Jaiswal for his sparkling performace at the top in the England series.
Michael Clarke hails Yashasvi Jaiswal
Former Australian captain and star middle-order batter Michael Clarke has praised young Indian opener Yashasvi Jaiswal and said Team India have found their new “Virender Sehwag” in him.
Since making his Test debut for India against the West Indies in July 2023, Jaiswal has played all 24 matches for Team India and, with the help of six centuries and 12 half-centuries, amassed a total of 2209 runs. He scored 391 runs in the 2024-25 edition of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Australia and amassed a total of 411 runs in five matches of the recently concluded Test series in England.
In addition to that, in his first-ever Test series for India in India last year, he scored 712 runs in nine innings of five matches against the English team.
Speaking on the Beyond23 Cricket Podcast, Clarke, who led the Australian men’s cricket team to the ODI World Cup title win in 2015, said Jaiswal is a superstar, and a batter like him could become a successful opener if he continues playing the way he is now.
“The way he (Jaiswal) plays, with someone like him opening the batting, if all goes to plan and he has the career that we think he is going to have—and he is going to, because he is a superstar—it’s going to be a lot like Sehwag,” Clarke said.
“He is that risky top-order, aggressive batsman who sets the intent for your team style. You have got to accept that he is going to play some innings that you watch and go, ‘Oh, what a superstar, what an amazing player,’ like in the second innings (at Oval), but he is going to nick the occasional ball, get a low score and hit one to backward point or play a pull shot that will go straight up.”
Clarke, who finished his Test career with 8643 runs in 115 matches, said that Jaiswal will only get better with time and could become unstoppable.
“He will continue to get better, but the way he plays is like Sehwag. When Sehwag was on, he was unstoppable, but sometimes he got out playing the big cover drive and nicked it for a duck,” he added.
After ex-Indian opener Murali Vijay, Jaiswal is the only player to have a 350-plus run debut series in Australia and England. With a combined 802 runs in 20 innings at an average of 42 with three centuries and four fifties, Yashasvi Jaiswal has given Indian fans a glimpse of the overseas force he could be in the coming times.
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