HYDERABAD: A day out from the Test, Rohit Sharma had backed India's myriad talented youngsters to come good with the bat. The team management had the option of going back to the likes of Cheteshwar Pujara and/or Ajinkya Rahane but after deliberations, they threw their weight behind talented but inexperienced turks.
"We did think of going back to fill in Kohli's absence, but then when will we give the youngsters the chance," the captain had said. "Leaving out an experienced player or not considering them is very hard. The amount of runs they have scored, the amount of games they have won, it's very hard to ignore all of that."
24 hours later, Yashasvi Jaiswal proved his captain right with a belligerence one associates with youth. Now, the southpaw was always going to play. As a left-handed opener, he's already a point of difference.
But the management have had to mix and match to bring the 22-year-old into the Test squad. Both KL Rahul and Shubman Gill have been shunted down the order for varying reasons.
But this move has worked out by design. Playing in his first Test at home and only his fifth overall, he wasted little time in leaving his stamp on the occasion. Off the first ball of the innings, he drilled a juicy ball on the pads through square leg. He then welcomed debutant Tom Hartley with a slog-sweep that sailed over the boundary.
Few balls later, another sweep followed with the same result. It was a calculated assault — Jazball if you will — on the young spinner and it was clear he never recovered from it. By the time stumps were drawn, he had figures of 0/63 in nine overs.
His length was too short and Jaiswal, who had made a 100 on debut in the West Indies, was happy to crunch him through mid-wicket. When Hartley overcompensated by going too full, Jaiswal drove him through covers. When the one-Test old Rehan Ahmed came into the attack, he got treated to something similar.
The one advantage that Jaiswal has is all spinners turn the ball into him so it was kind of a surprise that the tourists didn't give Joe Root an over or two before close of play.
This is the sort of attacking intent that coach Rahul Dravid had touched upon when he described the batters India had at their disposal. "By nature," Dravid had said two days before the Test, "most of our players are attacking.
"I don't think we are going out there to try to be ultra-attacking. I think we look to play what's in front of us, what the situation demands, what it calls for. By nature, if you look at our top- six-seven batters, there are a lot of guys who are naturally positive and look to take the game on. So, they are not going to be looking to change that in any particular way. There will be some different situations in which we may need to look to push the game along or we might have to bat for long periods."
His debut innings against the West Indies had lasted 501 minutes; the longest by an Indian player on debut. Following that vigil, Rohit had said, "He's got the talent. He's shown us in the past couple of years that he's ready for this big stage. Came and batted sensibly, showed a lot of patience and the temperament was tested as well... at no stage (did it look) like he was panicking or going away from his plans."
In front of a half-filled Rajiv Gandhi Stadium on a largely pleasant but sun-soaked late winter afternoon, he once again stuck to the task. Even as Shubman Gill — the answer to 'who next' to join the elites — survived a couple of close calls, Jaiswal went from strength to strength. With the ball already turning, run-scoring may be harder as the match wears on. So, best to get ahead of the game than be behind the eight ball in the fourth innings.
"We enjoyed the way Yashasvi was batting and he took on the spinners from the very first over," Axar said after the day's play. "It was very good to unsettle them early."
If Jaiswal's in-tray was about unsettling the spinners and transferring pressure on Thursday, it will be about making a bigger contribution when the teams come back on Friday. If he can do that, the hosts will have taken a big step towards a 1-0 lead in the series.
In the process, the Mumbai (he moved from UP when he was a kid) lad may even call up his tattoo studio to ink another date — he has inked several special dates related to cricketing achievements already. 26/01/2024 — a first Test century on Indian soil.