The opportunity to make his Test debut came to Yashasvi Jaiswal not by design, but by default. It’s not that the 21-year-old has not put in the hard yards in domestic cricket. He has 1845 runs in 15 First-Class matches at an average of 80.21. But it took more than his average and runs for him to make it into the Team India Test side and also get a starting spot.
IND vs WI: Jaiswal’s patient debut ton helps India surge ahead
His selection to the squad was prompted by India’s defeat in the World Test Championship (WTC) final last month. Had India won the title and Cheteshwar Pujara got the runs that he is known for making, maybe the debut would not have come this early.
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Then, the regular opener for India, Shubman Gill, had a chat with coach Rahul Dravid ahead of the Test series against West Indies that he wanted to bat at the No 3 spot, vacated by the exclusion of Pujara.
So, many things have gone into making Yashasvi Jaiswal an international cricket. But as they say, fortune favours the brave. And there have been few braver than Jaiswal.
He dared to dream of playing for India and for that sold street food in Mumbai, and slept in tents in Azad Maidan, sometimes empty stomach, all with one goal in mind — to play for India.
In that context, it has been a stupendous rise for the 21-year-old youngster from Bhadohi.
First, he made his name at the age-group level; scoring 400 runs and emerging as the highest run-getter at the ICC U19 World Cup 2020. Then he captured the headlines in domestic cricket; scoring a double ton and a hundred in the Irani Cup final 2023 as the Rest of India mauled Madhya Pradesh.
Next came the IPL. In the 2023 edition, Jaiswal amassed 625 runs in 14 matches for Rajasthan Royals including one hundred and five fifties. His fifty off just 13 balls against Kolkata Knight Riders is the fastest in the history of IPL.
But did he have what it takes to succeed in Tests or international cricket?
It’s an odd question to ask, right?
Jaiswal had been so successful at all stages, so why wouldn’t he be good for international cricket?
As Rahul Dravid recently said in one of his conversations, passion and drive alone are not enough to become one of the top cricketers. It also involves having “luck and fate”.
“There is no doubt that there are certain people who are gifted more than others. I always give this example: My greatest inspiration in cricket for me to get the best out of myself, was when as a player when I moved from city to city and every time when we moved to a new city we would have practice sessions where people would come to bowl to us,” Dravid said while speaking on Cred Curious.
“I would see incredible passion and hard work in those kids. You could see their desire and sacrifices and the fact that they love the game deeply. But you could see that irrespective of how hard they work, it was not going to happen. Sometimes, people say that if you just work hard at something, you can do it. Sometimes, it’s disrespectful because it does not acknowledge the little bit of luck and fate that you have got in life.”
Jaiswal with his debut Test ton has shown that he has drive, passion, luck, fate, temperament and talent for the biggest stage.
In the IPL 2023, Jaiswal accumulated his runs at a strike rate of 163.61.
In Dominica, he needed a completely different approach and technique. He needed to show that he can not only blast his way out in a match but can also grind it out if required.
On a pitch that offered a lot of assistance to spinners and there was bounce for the tweakers, Jasiwal played the typical waiting game that Test cricket demands.
He took 16 balls to get off the mark, reached his fifty in 104 balls and completed his hundred in 215 balls. He finished Day 2 on 143 not out from 350 balls, setting the record for facing the most balls for an Indian to have scored a century on Test debut. All in all, showing maturity beyond his age.
West Indies were bowled out for 150 on the same track but that shouldn’t fool you into thinking that batting was easy at Windsor Park. It certainly wasn’t the toughest of the conditions but the surface and West Indies’ tight bowling even forced Virat Kohli to take 81 balls to hit his first boundary of the match.
After all the hard work done, Yashasvi is inches away from 150 on debut, but he should target the elusive 200.
Jaiswal is the 17th Indian to make a century on Test debut, but no Indian has a double ton in his first Test match.
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