Yashasvi Jaiswal: For those who are familiar with Indian cricket and its historical sites, 774 is a revered number ingrained in memory. Sunil Gavaskar‘s massive amount of runs as a 21-year-old in his debut series against West Indies in 1971 is more importantly a benchmark for greatness in a sport that is obsessed with numbers and records. It was a grand entrance on the big stage if there ever was one, and it also ignited a long-lasting romance between the Caribbean and the opening batter.
Continuing the Legacy
That standard is still met more than 50 years later. Yashasvi Jaiswal deserves all the praise in the world for having a remote possibility of breaking through that barrier. With one Test match remaining against England in Dharamsala, he is still 120 runs short of that total, but if you are not going above and beyond the left-handed opening batsman, it’s a tribute to the series he has already played in.
Jaiswal’s Remarkable Run
He has amassed 655 runs at an average of 93.57 in four Test matches, including two double hundreds. With this kind of run, he joins the elite group of Indian hitters that includes Gavaskar, Virat Kohli, Rahul Dravid, and Dilip Sardesai as the only players to score more than 600 runs in a Test series.
Gavaskar is the only other Indian to have scored more than 700 runs in a series; the fact that he accomplished this feat twice against the West Indies (1971 and 1978–79) speaks much about his greatness. Gavaskar only lost one in a set of four Test matches in 1971 when he was bowled out for one in the opening inning of the third Test in Barbados. His other scores, which included 65, 67*, 116, 64*, 117*, 124, and 220, were indicative of the “khadoos” (work ethic and mindset) of Bombay batsmen who were unlikely to give up a lead.
Aakash Chopra’s Prediction
Not only this but also Aakash Chopra, a former cricket player who is now a commentator, thinks that youthful opener Yashasvi Jaiswal, who is now playing in the Test series against England, would have a great IPL 2024. With two double hundreds in the current series, Jaiswal has taken the world by storm. The upcoming IPL season could see him maintain his strong form.
Among an Indian team that is still relatively young, there have been several outstanding individual performances during the series. The entire cricket community has been captivated by Jaiswal’s batting brilliance, though, as he has smashed numerous records in the four Tests that have been played thus far.
Technical Insights from Prolonged Test Series
Keep in mind that when this series began, Kohli had just returned off a miserable tour of England, where he had averaged only 13.4 across five Test matches while flirting with deliveries outside off stump. His divergent comebacks that year also highlight the paradoxical nature of protracted series. While it is true that a high run total can only be achieved in situations where four or five Tests remain, a duel of that length can also reveal technical weaknesses in a batter’s game that a brief series cannot.
