Considering his past performance against England, left-hand opener Yashasvi Jaiswal was tipped for success when India crossed the English shores for the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy. Jaiswal came true to expectations as the Mumbai player started with a century (101) in his maiden outing on English soil in the first Test at Leeds. He followed it up with a half-century (87) in the second match but has blown hot and cold since. He has scored just 101 runs in the next six innings including his latest outing where he managed only two runs in India's fifth and final Test here at the Oval on Thursday morning. A delivery from Gus Atkinson angled into his front pad and then thudded on his back pad after deflection. With the on-field umpire adjudging it not out, England stand-in skipper Ollie Pope went for review and he was right as the ball was hitting the leg stump.
The script looks similar to Jaiswal's stint Down Under. After a duck in his first outing in Australia, he made a memorable comeback scoring 161 runs in the second innings in Perth. The slide began thereafter as Jaiswal managed only 230 runs from the next eight innings, which included two half-centuries (82 & 84) in the Melbourne match.
Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar pinpointed the mistake Jaiswal is committing while commentating for the official broadcaster. “There’s a bit of uncertainty and maybe a lack of confidence creeping into Jaiswal's game. After scoring a hundred in the first Test, he hasn’t looked very fluent," he commented.
Statistics also suggest that England changed their plans against Jaiswal after the first two matches. Their right-arm seamers started bowling to him more from around the wicket. That ploy yielded results. Out of the nine times he has opened, he has been dismissed seven times by right arm pacers from round the wicket, data have shown.
India legend Gavaskar said that the youngster is not getting his front foot forward enough. "... he's not getting his front foot far forward enough. I think if someone sits with him and works on a few technical aspects — like getting his front foot forward and not opening up his shoulder too much — it could help. Right now, his back shoulder is going towards first or second slip, which makes it hard for the bat to come down straight. If his shoulder stayed more towards the wicketkeeper and first slip, the bat would come down straighter,” opined Gavaskar.
If Jaiswal's wicket was not enough, India lost reliable KL Rahul too early in the morning as the Karnataka batter once again played onto the stumps in his attempt to cut a short length ball just outside off stump. Captain Shubman Gill then tried to rebuild the innings with B Sai Sudharsan but heavy rain forced an early lunch with India ending the session at 72/2 after 23 overs.
It took more than a couple of hours for the play to resume but the visitors lost their skipper Shubman Gill within the six overs, which were bowled before another rain stoppage. The previous match centurion pushed a length ball to the off side and set off for a non-existent single. Atkinson gathered the ball in his follow through and hit the stumps running out Gill.
Going three down at second halt, India lost Sai Sudharsan soon after the match restarted. Josh Tongue was wayward to begin with but change of end worked wonders for him. The ball swung away after pitching full and straight making the Tamil Nadu batter go for it but he could only get an outside edge. Ravindra Jadeja fell in a very similar manner, leaving Karun Nair and Dhruv Jurel in the middle. The latter did not last too long but Nair scored a valuable fifty and held fort along with Washington Sundar. The overcast conditions offered a lot of assistance to the English pacers and the rain stoppages did not help India’s cause either as they broke batters’ momentum.
Earlier, India made four changes to their playing XI resting pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah. Dhruv Jurel replaced injured wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant while rookie Anshul Kamboj, who made his Test debut at Manchester, was dropped from the team. Pacers Akash Deep and Prasidh Krishna made it to the side along with specialist batter Karun Nair, who replaced all-rounder Shardul Thakur.
Woakes injures shoulder
Chris Woakes injured his shoulder while trying to stop a boundary and had to walk off the field in the third session. He did not bowl for the rest of the day.
