What a time it is to be alive if you’re an Indian cricket fan or a cricket fan overall because what Yashasvi Jaiswal is doing is perhaps something that has never been seen before and can never be repeated again, at least by this generation of cricketers. With his 150 on day 4 of the 3rd Test against England at the Niranjan Shah stadium, Jaiswal has become the 1st Indian batter to convert his first 3 centuries into 150s on 3 occasions, twice in this 5-match series itself.
Yashasvi Jaiswal is ruling over the England bowlers and is showing no mercy at all even against someone like James Anderson who is twice his age. Matter of fact when Jaiswal turned a year old, Anderson made his ODI debut for England way back in 2002 and cricket is such a sport that defies age as well as generation, and that has been proven today.
The 22-year-old after getting to his 3rd 150 and second against England, smacked back-to-back 3 sixes off the veteran Englishman who is still awaiting to claim those elusive 5 wickets to enter the hall of fame. What hall of fame? Anderson is just 5 wickets away from becoming the first fast bowler to claim 700 Test wickets and it will be fair to say that it might not happen in this Test match at least.
But the man in the spotlight today is the baby-faced assassin Yashasvi Jaiswal who after converting his hundred to hundred and fifty, is now nearing towards converting that into his 2nd double century in the series. Now that’s some conversion rate! His average will be skyrocketing over 57 after this inning of his comes to an end but what’s more important is that India have actually found themselves a gem and we must thank Rajasthan Royals for that.
It was on the back of his sensational IPL 2023 performance for the Royals that Jaiswal was given a chance by Rahul Dravid-led team management. After scoring 40, 249, and 258 across his first three IPL seasons since 2020, the Bhadohi-based batter smacked 625 runs in 14 matches at a strike rate of 163.61 including a century and 5 half-centuries, which also saw him score the fastest IPL fifty off 13-balls and overtook KL Rahul’s.
It is definitely proving to be a dream debut home Test series and he could not have chosen a better opposition than this. Just as they say, “Fortune favors the brave”.
Yashasvi Jaiswal becomes just the 2nd batter to smack 3 sixes off an over bowled by James Anderson
With his 3 sixes off James Anderson’s over, Yashasvi Jaiswal has become just the 2nd batsman ever to do so after former Australian batter George Bailey who is currently the chief selector of the baggy greens. Back in 2013 during the Ashes at the Land down under, Bailey scored 28 runs off Anderson’s over which included 2 fours, 3 sixes, and a double.
And exactly a decade later, Jaiswal made a terrific entry into this ever-elusive and elitist list that for sure will not be done again any time soon.