Comparing Yashasvi Jaiswal’s stats with top Indian batters after 10 Test innings as opener
Swashbuckling opener Yashasvi Jaiswal hammered a brilliant double hundred on Day 2 of the second Test against England in Visakhapatnam on Saturday, February 3.
Resuming his innings at his overnight score of 179, the left-hander eased to his maiden double century in Test cricket, slamming debutant England off-spinner Shoaib Bashir for six and four off consecutive deliveries.
With his fabulous knock, he became the third youngest Indian male cricketer to notch up a double ton in Test cricket, being 22 years and 36 days old at the start of the ongoing Test in Visakhapatnam. Only Vinod Kambli (21 years and 32 days) and Sunil Gavaskar (21 years and 277 days) were younger than Jaiswal when they scored Test doubles.
Amazingly, Jaiswal’s maiden double hundred came in only his tenth Test innings. The left-hander has 620 runs at an average of 62, with two hundreds and two fifties, after ten innings.
While 10 innings is too small a sample size to make any sort of judgment on the youngster, we undertook an interesting exercise to find out how some of India’s top red-ball openers fared after the same phase of their Test career.
Sunil Gavaskar
If Jaiswal has made a brilliant start to his Test debut, Gavaskar’s numbers in his first 10 Test innings as opener were absolutely sensational. He amassed 831 runs after his first 10 Test knocks at an average of 118.71, with as many as four hundreds.
All four centuries came during his legendary debut Test series against the mighty West Indies away from home in 1971. Gavaskar scored 65 & 67* in his first Test in Port of Spain and followed up with 116 & 64* in his Georgetown. The Little Master registered scores of 1 & 117* in Bridgetown and notched up 124 & 220 in Port of Spain.
Gavaskar’s exceptional batting effort was one of the key factors in Team India’s iconic 1-0 triumph in the series. In his next Test against England, the former India captain scored 4 & 53 at Lord’s.
Virender Sehwag
Virender Sehwag did not open the innings in the first few Tests he played, batting in the middle order. But once he was pushed up to open the innings, he tasted immediate success. In his first 10 innings as Test opener, Sehwag notched up 513 runs at an average of 51.30, with two tons.
In his first innings as opener, the former player smashed 84 against England at Lord’s in July 2002 and followed up with 27 in the second innings. Sehwag hammered 106 in Nottingham before being dismissed for a duck in the second innings. He scored 8 in Leeds and 12 at The Oval.
Sehwag’s second Test ton as opener came when he scored 147 against West Indies at the Wankhede in Mumbai in October 2002. In the next two games of the series, the right-hander notched up 61 & 33 in Chennai and a run-a-ball 35 in the first innings of the Kolkata Test.
Gautam Gambhir
Gautam Gambhir had a mixed start to his Test career. After his first 10 red-ball innings for India, he had 409 runs at an average of 45.44, with one century and one half-century. The left-hander was dismissed for 3 & 1 on debut against Australia at the Wankhede in Mumbai in November 2004.
He scored 96 against South Africa in Kanpur and 7 & 26 against the same opponents at Eden Gardens in Kolkata. In the two-match Test series in Bangladesh, he contributed 35 in Dhaka and 139 in Chattogram, his maiden Test ton.
Gambhir then scored 41 & 32* against Pakistan in Mohali and 29 in the first innings of the Kolkata Test against the Asian rivals.
Murali Vijay
Former India batter Murali Vijay notched up 464 runs in his first 10 Test knocks as opener at an average of 46.40, with one hundred and two half-centuries. The elegant right-handed batter scored 33 & 41 on Test debut against Australia in Nagpur in November 2008.
Vijay scored 87 against Sri Lanka in Mumbai at the Brabourne Stadium in the same game in which Virender Sehwag hammered 293. Vijay and Sehwag added 221 for the opening wicket. Vijay registered scores of 58, 14 and 27 during the Test series in Colombo.
Vijay’s maiden Test ton (139) came against the Aussies in Bengaluru in October 2010. He followed up with scores of 37, 19 & 19 - the last two scores coming in the 2010 Durban Test.
Navjot Singh Sidhu
Cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu had an average start to his Test career as opener. In his first 10 innings as Test opener, he scored 284 runs at an average of 31.55, with one hundred and one fifty.
Sidhu scored 20 against West Indies in Chennai in December 1983. The right-handed batter had a mixed tour of West Indies in 1989. He scored 42* in Georgetown, 9 & 0 in Bridgetown, 11 & 1 in Port of Spain and 116 & 0 in Kingston.
In the first Test against Pakistan in Karachi in November 1989, he made 0 and 85.