Yashasvi Jaiswal ended 2024 with one of the best run-tallies by a Test opener in a calendar year, also setting a new India record.
Jaiswal, who is India’s top run-getter in the ongoing Border Gavaskar Trophy, scored 171 in Perth and hit 82 & 84 in Melbourne. His run-tally in 2024 now stands at 1,478 runs at 54.74: only Joe Root has scored more runs this year. His fighting 84 in the fourth innings at the MCG was cut short by a controversial caught-behind dismissal.
Jaiswal’s run tally is the fourth-best for a Test opener in a calendar year, behind Graeme Smith (1,656 runs in 2008) as well as Michael Vaughan and Justin Langer (1,481 runs in 2002 and 2004 respectively). Jaiswal also hit 12 fifty-plus scores, the joint second-best by an opener in a calendar year, level with Sunil Gavaskar (1979) and Graeme Smith (2008), and bettered only by Virender Sehwag (13 in 2010).
