Yashasvi Jaiswal in action against Australia© AFP
Legendary Indian cricket team batter Sunil Gavaskar was all praise for young opener Yashasvi Jaiswal following the five-match Test series against Australia. Although India lost the series 1-3, Jaiswal was a bright spot amid various disappointments as he scored 391 runs in 5 matches at an average of 43.44. Gavaskar said that he was initially skeptical about whether Jaiswal will be able to perform on Australian pitches but his consistency was brilliant and he learnt from his past mistakes to improve his game.
“This player’s biggest virtue is that he learns a lot from his first mistake. The way he got out last year in both Test matches in South Africa, I had a slight doubt in my mind whether he would be able to score runs on similar pitches in Australia,” said Gavaskar.
“In the first innings in Perth, he opened the face of his bat slightly and got caught at gully. In the second innings, he played with an absolutely straight bat to mid-off and mid-on, and when he was flicking, he was playing wide of mid-on and not towards square leg. He batted solidly.”
Gavaskar also pointed out how Jaiswal improved with every game and although it was his first series in Australia, he was able to understand and utilise the conditions to his advantage.
“He was standing outside the crease when it was swinging, especially when (Scott) Boland was bowling as his length is quite predictable. The other bowlers, Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins, bowl different lengths, some balls are short, but Boland bowls very few bouncers. So it’s praiseworthy how he kept improving in every match,” he said.
“I just felt that he was getting overaggressive at times at the start. These are Test matches, so you have a lot of time, it is played over five days. No matter how the pitch might be, give yourself a little time at the start and the bowling becomes easy to face,” Gavaskar concluded.
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