Yashasvi Jaiswal continued his outstanding recent form, hitting 73 – his fourth fifty-plus score in as many matches – as India battled to stay in the fourth India-England Test in Ranchi.

Jaiswal’s series elevated to yet another level in Ranchi as he negotiated a pitch exhibiting occasional inconsistent bounce to get India off to another strong start, despite the early loss of Rohit Sharma.

The India captain fell for two in the third over of the innings, nicking off to James Anderson to hand the England veteran his 697th Test wicket. Jaiswal was characteristically proactive at the crease, advancing down the ground to Ollie Robinson’s second delivery and later attempting, albeit unsuccessfully, to swipe Shoaib Bashir’s first ball down the ground for four.

England withheld their left-arm spinner Tom Hartley from the attack until the 32nd over, seemingly to avoid feeding Jaiswal with balls turning into him. Jaiswal broke and equalled various records during his Rajkot double hundred, his second 200-plus score of the series. Most notably, the 22-year-old opener equalled the all-time record for most sixes in a Test innings (12) and broke the all-time Test record for the most sixes in an individual Test series.

In Ranchi, his first six of the day, off the bowling of Bashir, brought him another record. It was his Jaiswal’s 23rd six of the series (and year), breaking Virender Sehwag’s long standing record of 22 sixes as the most hit by an Indian Test batter in a calendar year. On the all-time list irrespective of nationality, Jaiswal already sits third. Brendon McCullum (33 sixes in 2014) and Ben Stokes (26 sixes in 2022) are the only players to have hit more sixes in a calendar year than Jaiswal. It is of course only February and India have at least eight more Tests to play in 2024.

His latest 50-plus score also saw Jaiswal continue to haul down several other records of significance. Seven innings into the series Jaiswal now has 618 runs. India’s all-time record for the most runs scored in a series belongs to Sunil Gavaskar who hit 774 runs across four Tests against West Indies in 1970/71. With at least one – and potentially three – knocks left for Jaiswal in the series, there is every possibility he takes that record, too.

Even if he finishes the series without scoring another run he would have already registered more runs than Sachin Tendulkar ever scored in a single Test series. He is only 74 runs behind Virat Kohli’s career-best series haul (692) and one behind Rahul Dravid’s (619).

Jaiswal is also seventh on the all-time list for the most runs scored in a series by someone aged 22 or below. Donald Bradman’s record of 974, that he achieved in the 1930 Ashes, is likely out of reach, but Garfield Sobers’ tally of 824 runs against Pakistan in 1957/58 is potentially chaseable.

Gavaskar’s 774 against West Indies is also the all-time record for runs scored by an opener of any age in a five-match Test series. Mark Taylor holds the overall record for the most runs by an opener in a single series but his record tally of 839 runs were scored in the six-Test 1989 Ashes series in England.

It has already been a record-breaking series for Jaiswal but it is entirely possible he breaks a few more before this series is done.

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