During the expected lulls in India’s one-sided offensive on the first day of the second Test at the Feroz Shah Kotla on Friday, the restless New Delhi crowds – sparse in number but boisterous in character – broke into chants for this city’s favourite, and now retired, sporting hero. But at certain points of the day’s play, chants of ‘Kohli, Kohli’ made way for those of ‘Jaiswal, Jaiswal.’
Such was the controlled supremacy of Yashasvi Jaiswal’s unbeaten 253-ball 173 that he made this crowd very briefly shut out the comfort of nostalgia in exchange for the promise of the present. This was an innings that was an affirmation of Jaiswal’s status in Indian cricket, if there was any room left for that in the first place. Precocious talent he may be, but no other Indian batters are piling on runs with such consistency across different conditions. In 26 Tests so far, this was Jaiswal’s seventh Test ton piling onto his 12 fifties. Five of those seven are 150+ scores. Since making his debut in the West Indies tour in 2023, he is India’s highest scorer, and Friday’s innings pipped his average above 50 while he maintains a healthy strike rate in the mid-60s.
But the volume of the runs and impressive nature of the numbers don’t do justice to the exhibition of control he has shown everywhere in the world. There was the breakthrough ton on debut in the Caribbean, where he showed he has the temperament to play the long game in challenging conditions despite his natural attacking instincts. There were the two mammoth double centuries at home against England that announced his arrival on the biggest stage.
During the Australia Tour, he fared similar to the rest of the struggling Indian batting order but there still were some highs, like the match-winning century in the first Test in Perth. When India went to England earlier this year, where a hot summer without many overcast skies and pliable flat tracks had runs on offer, Jaiswal made crucial contributions that went under the radar. While the glory was swept away by India’s pacers’ comeback late in the final Test that earned them the 2-2 series draw, the sheer possibility for victory was set up by the Mumbai batter’s phenomenal rearguard hundred and partnership with tailender Akash Deep.
With every series and every innings, he has consistently proved his hunger for runs, and improved so rapidly that he has quickly gone from prospect to mainstay. At the Delhi Test on Friday, coming into bat against a substandard opposition, on the opening day, on a totally docile wicket, Jaiswal was determined he was not going to miss out on the opportunity for easy runs. And he certainly would make his accumulation look easy, finding his perfect scoring areas and relentlessly searing loose balls through those gaps when the chance arose.
Too often are intent and aggression correlated in modern-day cricket. Jaiswal showed an appetite for run-scoring while also reining in some of his instincts to go after every delivery that lands in the hitting zone. There are few players who go at every single ball, and go into every single shot, as hard as Jaiswal does, with his rapid bat-swing and whip-like stroke-making. Even his defensive shots ooze intent.
Runs were to be found against each member of the lacklustre bowling attack of the West Indies. Jaiswal played with restraint throughout the first hour while taking on the new ball, very negligible seam was on offer but caution proved sensible too once the fielding team tired and greater scoring opportunities presented themselves.
After lunch during his fruitful partnership with B Sai Sudharsan, Jaiswal significantly raised his scoring rate; trying to consistently milk a boundary or two from each over. His signature cut shot whirred with intensity every time width was on offer, against pace or spin. Six of his 19 boundaries came from that stroke. Part of the reason why he is so good at playing square of the wicket is how comfortable he is playing it late, a result of the kind of timing that made his drives down the ground and through the covers every time the pacers missed their lengths and pitched the ball up and full. It was not quite a chanceless innings, but composed; each of the three times the bat was raised, he looked dead set to do so again.
The 23-year-old remains in developmental stages; he is a distance away from perfecting the art of batting. On Friday, he would swing heavily at the cut shot, his most productive, but also play and miss a bit too often for his liking. On the leg side, he remains resistant to taking risks, or rolling out the sweeps against the spinners – he scored only one of his 19 boundaries to that side.
But he is certainly closer to perfecting the art of scoring runs. Expect him to come out with the same kind of hunger to score on Saturday as he did here at the start.
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