Yashasvi Jaiswal’s batting is firstly functional; secondly personal; and lastly, occasionally artistic. Australia saw all three traits during his unbeaten 90 that propelled India to a position of immense strength in the first Test at Perth.
First, he controlled his urges to reach 50 in the slowest time he has done in Tests (123 balls) as his goal then was purely functional: to wear down the bowlers and get to a point where the ball goes soft.
Then, he made it personal, as he often does when facing bowlers with big reputations – be it James Anderson in the India series or now Mitchell Starc and Co. in Australia. At one point, Starc was staring him down, but a little rewind is needed here. When Starc was batting in the morning, he had bantered with his IPL friend Harshit Rana, who had just bounced him, “I am going to bowl faster. I have a long memory”. Flash forward to that stare from Starc the bowler now. And Jaiswal went, “It’s coming too slow!”.
Against Anderson, who had exchanged a few words with him, Jaiswal had batted out a few hours patiently and then exploded in one of Anderson’s later spells, walloping him to all parts of Rajkot with a hat-trick of sixes – a sweep over square-leg, a imperious charge to clear cover boundary and a thump to the sight screen during his double hundred.
#YashasviJaiswal didn’t hesitate! 😁
“It’s coming too slow!” – words no fast bowler ever wants to hear! 👀
📺 #AUSvINDOnStar 👉 1st Test, Day 2, LIVE NOW! #AUSvIND #ToughestRivalry pic.twitter.com/8eFvxunGGv
— Star Sports (@StarSportsIndia) November 23, 2024
He isn’t a batsman who necessarily melts your heart with the beauty of his batsmanship, but he has a few shots that can stir some magic. Like the flicked six he unfurled against Starc in the 47th over. It was a full ball on his legs, but he didn’t just nurdle or work it around or heave it up and over. Instead, he pirouetted fluidly on his front foot to conjure a sweet six over deep backward square leg that had the local broadcasters Fox Sports give the freeze-frame treatment to the moment of impact. One leg pressed into the turf, other in the air, and the graceful movement of the hands, wrists, and the bat.
It’s this amalgamation of these three traits that make Jaiswal the batsman he is; his persona that leaves its imprint on how he bats. Two versions harmoniously cohabit in him: the classical Test batsman who, of all the youngsters in the team, has the most compact defensive technique and the air of a batsman who has faced thousands of balls in his formative years. The muscle memory of a dour veteran batsman and the confidence of been-there-done-that-a-million-times come across in the way everything aligns in his bat flow – from the head to the feet.
Jaiswal has the most compact defensive technique among the youngsters and the air of a batsman who has faced thousands of balls in his formative years. (AP)
And yet, when the mood seizes him, Jaiswal can transform into the T20 beast that he is, as he charged out to Lyon to send the ball over long-on or heave Starc past long-leg boundary. Near the end of the day’s play it seemed as if he wanted to get to this hundred before stumps as he started going for his shots, but then he decided against it, and settled for an unbeaten 90.
100 metres! Launched! #AUSvIND | #PlayOfTheDay | @nrmainsurance pic.twitter.com/dJfbkQdV1A
— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) November 23, 2024
Jaiswal loves visualising goals to the backdrop of the mushy song ‘My heart will go on. Every night in my dreams I see you, I feel you’, the track from Titanic. He can be cute, he can sledge, he can give, he can take, and he can dream about “meeting Kate Winslet” one day. Meanwhile, in the real world, he is busy pounding the bowlers around the world.
On Saturday, Jaiswal, the batsman who has battered all bowlers in India, in West Indies, but couldn’t replicate it on tough Test pitches in South Africa – his only real blip so to say – has taken that big step in Australia. Under pressure, especially after his flashy on-the-up sortie that dismissed him in the first innings and also the pressure-cooker situation of the match where India desperately needed a solid start to ensure they didn’t repeat their collapse, he has delivered.
In Rajkot, when he was walking off after his double hundred, the opposing captain Ben Stokes intervened to high-five him for his fabulous innings. And if and when he reaches his hundred in Perth and possibly goes well beyond it, he might get a few pats on the back from a few Australian players. It’s one thing to do and get that reception in Rajkot; it’s an entirely different accomplishment to get that in Perth. Functional, personal, and occasionally artistic – India’s young opener does it in his style.
I’m Manas Ranjan Sahoo: Founder of “Webtirety Software”. I’m a Full-time Software Professional and an aspiring entrepreneur, dedicated to growing this platform as large as possible. I love to Write Blogs on Software, Mobile applications, Web Technology, eCommerce, SEO, and about My experience with Life.
