India’s greenhorn batter Yashasvi Jaiswal is here to stay. The left-hander scored a magnificent century on debut against the West Indies at Windsor Park, Dominica on Thursday. Starting the second day’s play on 40, Jaiswal took a cautious approach along with his skipper Rohit Sharma in the first session.
In fact, the left-hander was troubled by West Indies’ big man – Rahkeem Cornwall as he was beaten on a few occasions. However, Jaiswal showed composure and hung in there in challenging conditions.
In fact, Indian openers – Rohit Sharma and Jaiswal – could only manage 66 runs in the 32 overs of the opening session. However, the duo was able to change gears after lunch as they scored more freely.
Jaiswal became the 17th Indian batter to score a century on Test debut and admitted it was an emotional moment for him. The southpaw added a fine opening alliance of 229 runs with skipper Rohit Sharma before the latter was dismissed after scoring his 10th Test century. The youngster remained unbeaten on 143 at the end of the day’s play to take India to 312-2 and the visitors have a huge lead of 162 runs.
Jaiswal said it is only a start and also admitted it is difficult to break into the Indian team.
Speaking to Jio Cinema at stumps on Day 2, Jaiswal said: “[It] was an emotional moment (on his century), was just proud of myself, thankful for everyone, this is just a start and I want to do well going further. It’s difficult to get opportunities in the Indian team, I would like to thank everyone, the supporters, team management and Rohit Bhai.”
The Mumbai batter added that the pitch is on the slower side and the outfield is slow and thus it was challenging to score runs.
“The pitch is on the slower side and the outfield is very slow, it was difficult and challenging, it was pretty hot and I wanted to keep doing it for my country, just play ball-by-ball and enjoy my cricket.”
The Mumbai batter added: “I love Test cricket, I like this challenge, I enjoy the situation when the ball swings and seams. We have worked hard on everything, I’ve just gone out to express myself.”
Jaiswal will look to continue the good show on the third day’s play and he will eyeing a double century.
