With Yashasvi Jaiswal converting his overnight score to a record-breaking double-century on the second morning, cricket experts from India went ga-ga over the feat. Yashasvi Jaiswal showed to the world cricket that his ton in the Caribbean wasn’t a fluke by any means as the left handed batter was seen taking calculative risks.
A knock as epic as 209, scored by Yashasvi Jaiswal, is bound to spark comparisons with some of the legends of the game. On Friday, former India cricketer Aakash Chopra compared the youngster to Sir Don Bradman after the youngster ended Day 1 unbeaten on 179, in a lone battle against the England bowling attack in the second Test in Visakhapatnam.
With Yashasvi Jaiswal converting his overnight score to a record-breaking double-century on the second morning, cricket experts from India went ga-ga over the achievement, comparing the opener to the legendary Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag.
Yashasvi Jaiswal’s epic double ton sets India firmly in the match.
Yashasvi Jaiswal batted for 290 deliveries across four sessions, which included being in the middle through the entire course of 93 overs on Day 1, while the rest of the Indian batters struggled to convert their starts. The second-best score was a knock of 34 from Shubman Gill.
Jaiswal’s age at the start of the second Test match. He is now the third-youngest player to score a double-century for India in men’s Tests. Vinod Kambli had two doubles before turning 22 – the first came against England when he was 21 years and 32 days old, at the start of the Wankhede Test in 1993. Sunil Gavaskar’s maiden double came in the 1971 Port of Spain Test, which he began aged 21 years and 277 days.
After finishing on an unbeaten 179 on the opening day, the most scored by an Indian batter on Day 1 of a Test match against England and the second-highest against an opposition at home, Yashaswi notched up his maiden double century on Saturday to become the third youngest Indian to the feat. He also became the first left-handed batter from India to score a double century in the format since 2009.
This feat certainly led to the bidding war of greatness achieved by this Mumbai youngster who compared Jaiswal intent as a calibre similar to great Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag (only man to score two triple hundreds for India in test as an opener).
One of the biggest factors in Yashasvi’s knock was his fearlessness, as exemplified through six he scored over long-on to bring up his second career century and the sweep shot he played to score a boundary and notch up the double ton. His total innings comprised of 19 boundaries and seven sixes The characteristic ignited comparisons with Sehwag who used to be flamboyant during his tenure as an opener in Test matches.
However Former Indian spinner now commentator Pragyan Ojha has other views regarding the same.
Yashasvi Jaiswal is playing fearless cricket- Pragyan Ojha
Former Indian spinner now commentator Pragyan Ojha reckons it’s too early to compare Yashaswi Jaiswal’s fearless approach with Virender Sehwag.
Jaiswal scored 209 runs off 290 deliveries as India posted 396 in their first innings on Day 2 of the second Test against England in Visakhapatnam on Saturday. The hosts then bundled out Ben Stokes and company or 253 before finishing the day at 28 for no loss in their second essay.
During a discussion on Colors Cineplex, Ojha was asked whether he sees glimpses of Sehwag in Jaiswal, considering that he reached each of his milestones with either a four or a six.
“It can be said that he is playing fearless cricket. However, if you talk about Virender Sehwag, it’s not about one, two or three matches. You talk about how his entire career has been,” he responded.
“So this is just the start. We will see how he plays going forward. We will pray that he plays like this but it remains to be seen how he keeps the expectations aside and attacks fearlessly. Sehwag did that consistently for many years. So I feel it’s a little early,” the former India spinner added.
Jaiswal reached his century with a six off Tom Hartley’s bowling. He struck fours to reach the 50, 150 and 200-run marks.
It reflected his confidence – Pragyan Ojha on Yashasvi Jaiswal reaching his century with a six
Pragyan Ojha was also asked about Yashasvi Jaiswal hitting seven sixes during his innings.
“A player steps out or plays attackingly if he knows he can handle wherever the ball is pitched. That’s why Yashasvi plays like that. He completed his century with a six. It reflected his confidence,” he replied.
The cricketer-turned-commentator was particularly appreciative of the maturity displayed by the youngster even though wickets were falling at the other end.
“He batted fantastically but the best part was the clarity and maturity he showed. It’s not that easy. You get stuck at times but he held the innings together. He lost his partners but he stood firmly like Angad’s leg,” Ojha elaborated.
Jaiswal was the only Indian batter to play a substantial knock in the first innings, with Shubman Gill(34) being the second-highest run-getter. He strung together half-century partnerships with Shreyas Iyer (27), Rajat Patidar (32) and Axar Patel (27), and was the eighth wicket to fall to James Anderson.
This innings from Yashaswi Jaiswal bolstered the likes of Jasprit Bumrah who then ripped through the England batting line up with an inspiring spell of 6-45 to give India heavy lead in the first innings to believe that they can win the test match and square the series 1-1 enroute their way to Rajkot for the 3rd test.