It was a day that belonged to Yashasvi Jaiswal, but not quite to India. The youngster batted through the 93 overs of the day with a matured approach in terms of changing gears and unsettling the bowlers, and finished unbeaten on 179 on Day 1 against England in his second Test in Visakhapatnam. It was his second Test hundred, and his best individual score till date in his career, having notched up 171 on debut against West Indies in Dominica. However, the stat that really stood out was that Yashasvi’s tryst with a 60-year-old record, which he broke en route to his stellar knock.
Yashasvi seemed to be at home as he smashed 17 boundaries and five maximums in his 257-ball knock despite no other India batter managing more than 34. He did manage to find himself in partnerships of 49 runs (alongside Shubman Gill for the second wicket), 90 runs (alongside Shreyas Iyer for third wicket), 60 runs (alongside Rajat Patidar for fourth wicket) and 52 runs (alongside Axar Patel for fifth wicket); however, the soft dismissals of his partners cut short the promising stands.
At the end of day’s play, with India on 336/6, Yashasvi said that amid wickets falling at regular intervals, he looked to approach the match session by session, and revealed that he hopes to score his maiden double century on Saturday.
“I wanted to play it session by session. When they were bowling well, I just wanted to get through that spell. Initially, the wicket was damp and there was spin and bounce, with a bit of seam. However, I wanted to convert the loose balls, and play till the end. I would love to double this up, and play till the end for the team. I want to recover well for tomorrow now,” he said.
“The pitch played a bit differently, in the morning it was a bit damp and then it settled. With the older ball, there was some bounce. Rahul sir and Rohit bhai kept giving me the confidence and told me to convert this into a big innings, and stay till the end.”
