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Yashasvi Jaiswal epitomises all that is right about the sport, a game we so love. The young batter made his international debut against the West Indies in India’s win over the home side by an innings and 141 runs. At just 21 years old, the southpaw looked unfazed by international cricket and batted brilliantly to score 171 (387) deliveries which took him to the record books as the third-highest debut score for an Indian in Tests.
The conditions weren’t favourable for batting on his debut and the wicket kept slowing down with the passing time but the youngster dug in with his proper “khadoos” cricket from Mumbai’s maidans and made sure that he didn’t waste the priced opportunity that was offered to him.
Since his debut, the left-hander has played 10 Tests for India and already has three Test centuries to his name and has breached the 150-run mark on all three occasions and 200 twice.
As a natural stroke player, he would play his big shots even when he is batting on 94.
He would charge someone like James Anderson for three back-to-back sixes to equal a long-standing record of most sixes in a Test innings (12) while batting at a strike rate of 90.67 but when there’s help for the bowlers, he would put his absolutely everything to protect his wicket and score a 171 with a strike rate of 44. That’s how good he is in his mind.
In the time when most players make their way to the longest format through their consistent performances in white ball cricket, Jaiswal does the opposite.
He first cemented his place in the Test side with a 712-run series against England at home while averaging 89 (the second-best being Gill at 452 at 56.50) before getting his due in T20 cricket, waiting for a veteran to retire while spending the whole T20 World Cup on the bench.
Skill-wise, he is yet to be tested in the overseas waters of Australia, New Zealand and England but most importantly, he has the mindset and temperament of an elite Test cricketer that many white-ball greats lacked in the past.
He knows how to make it easy for the others around him to bat without any pressure, and how to respect the conditions to bat long on a gruelling day while also pouncing on every opportunity to hit the bowler, no matter his stature.
He doesn’t stop after getting a hundred, he wants more, he knows how to score those daddy hundreds a team wants their opener to score.
The soon-to-be 23-year-old has already scored 1094 Test runs in 10 matches at an average of 64.35. That is just behind Joe Root’s 1398 runs in the ongoing World Test Championship cycle with 11 innings less played.
The lad behind these remarkable numbers, lest it is forgotten, is Yashasvi Jaiswal and he is here to stay. For long.
