Young Indian opener Yashasvi Jaiswal has entered the list of Indian batters which includes a few legends of the game. With a half-century in the first session of second Test against West Indies at Queen's Park Oval, Port of Spain, Trinidad, Jaiswal has become the 10th Indian batter to register fifty-plus scores in first two Test innings of career.
Here is a list of Indian batters who have scored a half-century in each of their first two Test innings –
Dilawar Hussain (1934)
Kripal Singh (1955)
Sunil Gavaskar (1971)
Sourav Ganguly (1996)
Rahul Dravid (1996)
Suresh Raina (2010
Rohit Sharma (2013)
Prithvi Shaw (2018)
Shreyas Iyer (2021)
Yashasvi Jaiswal (2023)
Jaiswal completed his half-century from 49 deliveries. The southpaw hit consecutive boundaries off Alzarri Joseph in the 23rd over to reach his half-century and enter the record books. At the end of first session, Jaiswal was batting on 52 runs from 56 deliveries.
In the second session, Jaiswal struggled to find the gaps. He hit a boundary off Jason Holder in the 32nd over. But then he went for an expansive drive outside off stump. The ball took a thick inside edge and debutant Kirk Mckenzie took an exceptional catch at wide gully.
Jaiswal scored 57 runs from 74 balls including nine fours and one six. He shared a 139-run stand with skipper Rohit Sharma who completed his 2,000 runs as Test opener. Jaiswal and Rohit became the fifth Indian pair to share two consecutive century stands in Test cricket. The feat is only bettered by Virender Sehwag and Murali Vijay as they shared three consecutive century stands from 2008-09.
Also, they became the fourth Indian pair to share two century stands in an away series. They became the first opening pair in 17 years to do it for India.
In his debut game, Jaiswal scored 171 and was adjudged ‘Player of the match’. The 21-year-old was lauded by the skipper as he had said, "He has the talent, he has shown us in the past that he is ready. Came and batted sensibly. The temperament was also tested, at no stage he was panicking. The chats were to remind him that 'you belong here. You have done the hard yards, enjoy your time here.”
The 171-run knock also helped him secure the 73rd pace in International Cricket Council (ICC) Test batter rankings.
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