With hopefully an innings still left in hand, Yashasvi Jaiswal would aim beat Sunil Gavaskar’s record in Test cricket as the youngster stands 63 runs behind.
India opener Yashasvi Jaiswal continued his sublime form on Thursday in the ongoing Test series against England as he notched up his fourth career half-century in the fifth game at the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium in Dharamsala. En route to the knock, Jaiswal not only reached the milestone of 1000 runs in the format, but also matched the legendary Sunil Gavaskar’s elusive record.
Yashasvi Jaiswal scored yet another half-century. (AFP)
With a boundary against Shoaib Bashir in the 15th over of India’s innings, Jaiswal became the second-quickest Indian (16 innings) to amass 1000 runs in Test cricket after Vinod Kambli (14). However, in terms of Test matches taken to the feat, Jaiswal, into his ninth appearance for India, surpassed Gavaskar and Cheteshwar Pujara (11 matches each), to become the fastest from the country. Overall, it is the joint-second most alongside Everton Weekes, Herbert Sutcliffe and George Headley, with Sir Don Bradman (7) still ruling the chart.
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At 22 years and 70 days, the left-hander also became the fourth-youngest Indian batter to reach 1000 Test runs after Sachin Tendulkar (19y, 217d), Kapil Dev (21y, 27d) and Ravi Shastri (21y, 197d).
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A few overs later, following another back-to-back boundaries against Bashir, Jaiswal became the first and only other Indian since Gavaskar to score 700 runs in a single bilateral Test series. The former India captain had done it twice in his career, both against West Indies – on tour in 1971 (his debut series), where he scored 774 runs and at home in 1978/79, where he amassed 732 runs.
Jaiswal, who was eventually dismissed for 57 runs by Bashir, has his run tally at 712 runs in the series against England, which is already the most ever against the opponent by an Indian batter after he surpassed Virat Kohli with his first run on Friday morning. The former India skipper, who missed the series owing to the birth of his second child, had scored 655 runs in the 2016 home series against England.
With hopefully an innings still left in hand, Jaiswal would be aiming to beat Gavaskar’s elite record in Test cricket as the youngster stands 63 runs behind.
Jaiswal’s fifty, along with an unbeaten 52 from captain Rohit Sharma helped India reduce the first-innings deficit to just 83 runs in Day 1 in Dharamsala as the hosts were at 135 for one at stumps.
