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In the last hour of the India vs England first Test in Hyderabad, there was a discussion in the commentary box between Eoin Morgan, Dinesh Karthik and Harsha Bhogle about which transition is more difficult – From Test to T20s or the other way? The man who triggered the debate was India opener Yashasvi Jaiswal, who largely made his name in the Indian domestic circuit as an attacking white-ball cricketer. His claim to fame was a double century in the Vijay Hazare Trophy (domestic one-dayers). Then he shined in the U19 World Cup, scoring a century against Pakistan. His first season in the IPL was not a great one but since 2021, he slowly but surely started to make his presence felt before going on to smash 625 runs last year at a strike rate of 163.61.
In between all this, Jaiswal also maintained first-class average of 72. Since making his Ranji Trophy debut in 2019, he has amassed 2161 runs in just 33 innings. This is one of the major reasons why he was given a Test cap before an ODI or T20I one. But on Thursday, an amalgamation of Jaiswal the T20 cricketer and the solidity of a Test-match batter was on display.
Jazball hits Bazball and wins the battle
The first ball he faced was a flick off his pads for a boundary. The first ball of spin he faced was heaved away over deep square leg for a six. With five minutes to go for stumps, he charged down the track to Rehan Ahmed but yorked himself. A ball later, he went again and this time it landed deep into the stands to collect his third six of the innings.
It was Jaiswal at his best, or shall we say Jazball? The young Indian left-hander was doing to Englan what they have been doing to other teams in the last couple of years. As cliched as it may sound, Jaiswal gave England a taste of their medicine. ‘Jazball’ came as a bolt from the blue for the Ben Stokes-led side.
At close, Jaiswal (76 batting, 70 balls, 9×4, 3×6) and Shubman Gill (14 batting) were at the crease and the hosts are 127 runs in arrears of England’s anaemic first innings total of 246, which was built around skipper Ben Stokes’ hardheaded 88-ball 70.
Jaiswal wrapped himself with the leader’s cape despite the presence of his captain Rohit Sharma (24, 27 balls) at the other end, tearing into England bowlers with gusto.
The gap between runs and balls could give the left-hander’s innings a hue of carelessness but it was anything but that. He reached his half-century off just 47 balls.
Jaiswal and Rohit added 80 runs in just 12.1 overs to give their side a wonderful launching pad.
It came to an end when Rohit gave a catch to Stokes off left-arm spinner Jack Leach while trying to clear him over the long-on.
But for the rest of the innings, it was a futile toil for the English bowlers as this could be the beginning of a long and tiring tour for them.
Earlier in the day, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel shared eight wickets among them to bowl England out for 246. Ben Stokes top-scored for them with 70.
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