Sunil Gavaskar reveals he had ‘reprimanded’ Yashasvi Jaiswal in South Africa for throwing away a start against West Indies during his debut series last August.
Yashasvi Jaiswal emerged as the biggest find for India in their 4-1 series win against England, scoring over 700 runs. Jaiswal, who had a spectacular start to his Test career last August, with a century on debut, went on to become the second only Indian batter to amass 700 runs or more in a single Test series after the legendary Sunil Gavaskar. The former India captain, in fact, achieved the distinction twice – in his debut series in 1971 and again in 1978/79 – both times against the West Indies, but it took another 45 years for Gavaskar to find company in the club, and it came from none other than a 22-year-old who is yet to even play 10 Test matches.
Sunil Gavaskar gave Yashasvi Jaiswal a piece of his mind. (Reuters)
However, come to think of it, Jaiswal’s spectacular achievement almost wouldn’t have been possible had it not been for an intervention from Gavaskar during India’s tour of South Africa. The first batter to score 10,000 runs in Test cricket, Gavaskar revealed that he had pulled up Jaiswal during the Johannesburg Test. Always vocal about the importance of converting starts, Gavaskar gave Jaiswal a piece of his mind in the hotel room, and as it turns out, it worked wonders as Jaiswal has been an unstoppable force in Tests ever since.
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“It felt very nice to see Yashasvi getting all those runs and the manner in which he dominated the attack. I had mildly reprimanded him in the hotel elevator on Day 1 of the first Test in South Africa for throwing away his wicket in Trinidad (previous Test) after a good 50 plus score and told him never to do the bowlers any favour. Thankfully, he listened to me and got two big doubles in this series,” Gavaskar said during an interaction with The Hindustan Times.
Jaiswal’s record-breaking series
Jaiswal finished the series with 712 runs at an average of 89 including two double centuries and became the third Indian to score multiple double tons in a single Test series after Vinoo Mankad and Virat Kohli. For his outstanding numbers, Jaiswal was voted as the ICC player of the month, winning the award by beating a legend like Kane Williamson, who himself was in scorching form in the South Africa Tests, scoring three centuries in four innings.
In addition to the 209 in Visakhapatnam and the 214 he slammed in Rajkot, Jaiswal also notched up three half-centuries – 80, 73 and 57. Gavaskar had a light take on it but mentioned it gave him great delight to see how good Jaiswal is turning out to be for India at such a young age.
“He got three other half centuries and forgot what I had told him there. But hey, who listens to anyone when one is in his 20s. I didn’t either. Hopefully, he will go on to bigger things and never forgets that he is what he is because of Indian cricket,” he added.
