India’s 22-year-old left-handed opening batsman Yashasvi Jaiswal surpassed Virat Kohli’s record of most runs for India during a Test series against England. Jaiswal entered the elusive list in the fifth and series which concluded the Anthony De Mello Trophy Series Test match with his third half-century of the series.
There have been very few if any who impressed like Yashasvi Jaiswal did in his first home Test series. The kind of form he showed in the series was crucial for another reason. And that was the disappointing performance he put in in the two-match Test series in South Africa in late December and early January.
Yashasvi Jaiswal’s resurgence after disappointment in South Africa
After scoring 17, 5, 0 and 28 in innings at Centurion and Cape Town, Yashasvi Jaiswal revived his form nicely and repaid the confidence offered to him by Rahul Dravid and Rohit Sharma. He has been able to maintain lethal form during the first Test in Hyderabad, where he posted scores of 80 and 15 in the match which India lost by just 28 runs.
It was a perfect lead for Jaiswal, who went on to score an emphatic 209 in the first innings in Vizag before 17, as India won that match by 106 runs. In the third Test at Rajkot, Jaiswal scored 10 and then another double century, this time scoring 214* in India’s biggest Test match victory by 434 runs.
In the fourth Test, which turned out to be a tough challenge for the Indians, Yashasvi Jaiswal amassed 73 and 37 in innings as India claimed victory by 5 wickets. Dhruv Jurel’s winning runs in the fourth innings marked India’s 17th consecutive victory in a red-ball series at home.
And moments ago, during the second innings of the fifth Test at Dharamshala, Jaiswal, before departing for 57 off 58, became the highest run-scorer in the Test series against England for India. He has now scored 712 runs in the series in 9 innings at an average of 89.
He has surpassed his nearest rival on that list, Virat Kohli, who scored 655 runs in the 2016/17 series. Rahul Dravid, who is India’s head coach at the moment, scored 602 runs during the 2002 series with Kohli appearing at fourth place thanks to his 593 runs in the 2018 series, while Vijay Manjrekar concludes the top 5 with his 586 races since the 1961/62 series.
In a series where the debutants impressed a lot from the hosts’ perspective, Jaiswal emerged as another batsman who has a bright future with the national team.
Jaiswal’s performance forced Aakash Chopra to call him better than Don Bradman at the moment.
After watching Yashasvi Jaiswal score his second double century of the series in the third Test, Aakash Chopra was forced to call him better than Don Bradman at this point.
“When spin came, he hit two fours in the first over. After that, he showed why this player is so special. His conversion rate from fifties to hundreds for players who have 10 or more centuries in first-class cricket, is even above Sir Don Bradman right now,” Aakash Chopra said in the YouTube video of him.
