India’s rookie batter Yashasvi Jaiswal kicked off his Test career on a high as he smashed 171 runs in the team’s win of an innings and 141 runs in the opening Test at Windsor Park, Dominica. The youngster admitted playing Test cricket for India is very special and emotional moment for him.
It is well known that Jaiswal had to toil hard through the junior levels after coming from a humble background. The youngster has done the hard yards and he is now reaping rewards for the same.
Jaiswal added a huge opening alliance of 229 runs with skipper Rohit Sharma and played a key role in helping the team in posting 421 runs on the board after the Windies were skittled out for only 150 in the first innings.
The left-hander’s score of 171 is the third-highest by any debutant for India after Shikhar Dhawan (187 vs Australia) and Rohit Sharma (177 vs West Indies). The southpaw showed all the patience in his mammoth knock as he faced a total of 387 balls and played at the top of his game. Ergo, he was awarded Player of the Match for his fine batting performance.
Jaiswal gave his gratitude to all the selectors and the team staff for showing faith in his abilities.
The youngster said in the post-match presentation, “Preparation was pretty good. We were having a nice session. Spoke a lot to Rahul Dravid sir. Would like to thank all the selectors and Rohit (Sharma) bhai for having faith in me. It’s really nice, I have been working for this. I’ve been focusing on preparing well and having discipline.”
He added, “Playing Test cricket for India is very special and emotional for me. This is just the start, I need to keep my focus and keep working on my cricket. A lot of people helped me through my journey and I want to thank each and every one of them. It was tremendous batting with the senior players. I look forward to learning more from them.”
The rookie batter scored a total of 16 fours and one six in his brilliant knock. In fact, Jaiswal showed he can play according to the match situation as he was able to change gears when it was needed. The 21-year-old will look to continue the good show for India in the second Test match, which will be played from 20th July at the Queen’s Park Oval, Port of Spain, Trinidad.
