Yashasvi Jaiswal entered the record books with his second Test century on the first day at Visakhapatnam, making his way up two notable lists for young and early career run-making.
Jaiswal held the Indian effort together after Rohit Sharma had chosen to bat, reaching stumps on 179 as none of his teammates reached 40. England struck regularly at the other end, but Jaiswal scored freely and proved immovable, offering only a couple of quarter-chances to Joe Root at slip that flew fast past the fielder.
He brought up a flowing hundred with a six down the ground, and carried on to pass 150 for the second time in Test cricket, becoming only the third Indian to bring up a daddy hundred twice before his 23rd birthday. Jaiswal turned 22 just over a month ago, and has time to overtake Sachin Tendulkar and Vinod Kambli, the two of his countrymen he was equalled.
Jaiswal overtook his debut score of 171, and while it is a less notable milestone, making two 170-plus scores before turning 23 pares down the list to contain almost exclusively the game’s greats. Don Bradman (four), Kusal Mendis (three), and Graeme Smith, Graeme Pollock, George Headley, Chris Gayle and Garry Sobers (two) are the others on the list, with Sri Lanka’s Mendis, still an active player, the only one not to reach ‘great’ status yet.
Jaiswal ended day one with 590 career runs from 10 innings. That puts him 25th in terms of Test runs in a player’s first 10 innings, but if only openers or only Indians are considered, Jaiswal takes on a new significance. He sits eighth in the list of most runs among an opener’s first 10 Test innings. India’s Mayank Agarwal is 15 runs ahead in seventh place, while Conrad Hunte is third and only 32 runs away. Herbert Sutcliffe, with 780 runs in 10 innings, is surely too far in front. India’s Sunil Gavaskar, with 831 runs, is top.
A day that belongs to Yashasvi Jaiswal.
Two wickets for England in the final hour mean they need four more tomorrow to bowl India out.#INDvsENG pic.twitter.com/qNqulYnPAu
— Wisden (@WisdenCricket) February 2, 2024
Among Indians for runs in the first 10 innings, Jaiswal is behind Agarwal and Gavaskar, also openers, and Kambli (top of the global list), also in the two-150-plus-scores-before-turning-23 club.
Jaiswal now averages 65.55 in Test cricket, and his first-class average currently sits at 76.09. That puts him behind only Bradman, who averaged 95.14 in his 234-match career, with a cut-off of 2,000 runs. A special start, whichever way you cut it.
