Yashasvi Jaiswal has enjoyed a stunning start to his Test career. But where does it rank among the best of all time?
The Indian opener finished as the highest run-scorer in the recently concluded home Test series against Bangladesh, with 189 runs in four innings. In the first innings of the Chennai Test, he scored a gritty 56 amid a cluster of wickets, before leading India’s astonishing charge in the shortened Kanpur Test with knocks of 72 & 51, both at quicker than a run-a-ball.
Jaiswal stole the show in India’s previous home series against England as well, slamming 712 runs in five Tests, including two double-centuries and three more half-centuries.
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After 11 Tests and 20 innings, Jaiswal’s run tally stands at 1217 runs, with an average of 64 and strike rate of nearly 72 runs per 100 balls. How does this start stack up against some of the best in Test history?
As far as runs are concerned, Jaiswal sits in 11th spot for the most scored across the first 20 innings of their Test career. Unsurprisingly, Don Bradman has the most, with 1889 runs. Three players to debut in the 21st century have recorded more than Jaiswal – Adam Voges (1327), Graeme Smith (1300) and Michael Hussey (1225). In the second innings in Kanpur, Jaiswal went past Englishman Harry Brook’s tally of 1181 runs.
In Indian history, Jaiswal’s start to Test cricket with the bat has been more or less unprecedented. Another left-hander from Mumbai, Vinod Kambli, was quicker to the 1000-run mark, but Jaiswal has moved almost 200 runs ahead of Kambli after 20 innings each.
The only other Indians to record four figures for runs in their first 20 innings in Test cricket are Cheteshwar Pujara (1046) and Mayank Agarwal (1000). Vijay Merchant made 859 runs in his 18 career innings.
Jaiswal is also just one of three Indians to record a Test average of 60 or more after 20 innings – Pujara and Sunil Gavaskar are the other two. A total of 24 players, including these three, have achieved this feat. Brook, and Pakistan’s Saud Shakeel are the only active players other than Jaiswal and Pujara to do so.
But beyond just the volume of runs Jaiswal has scored, the speed at which he can score is also a standout feature of his game. With a strong base in white-ball batting as well, his ability to shift through gears has stood him in good stead in the longest format, as seen in Kanpur and when the situation demanded it against England.
Strike rate records are not available for all of Test history, but where records are complete Jaiswal once again ranks extremely high. Among players with at least 1000 Test runs, there are 10 players who score faster than him, but none can match his batting average. In fact, the only one who does is Sri Lankan sensation Kamindu Mendis, who scores 10 points slower.
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Harry Brook is the only player with a higher strike rate than Jaiswal to average north of 50. Viv Richards averaged a touch over 50 in Test cricket, and where we have data available, he struck at 70.2, just under Jaiswal.
There is still time for these figures to change as he goes through his career, but for the moment Jaiswal is a unique player for his ability to blend quantity and speed of Test runs. This is even more clear when considering his position at the top of the batting order, largely considered one of the most difficult positions.
Among openers, only Ben Duckett and Virender Sehwag can be confirmed as having scored quicker than Jaiswal through their careers. Victor Trumper (incomplete records), TM Dilshan and David Warner all come close but once again none can boast the same average as India’s newest opener.
Perhaps the closest opener India have had to Yashasvi Jaiswal in the past was Virender Sehwag, for his ability to score quickly while accumulating a solid quantity of runs. Jaiswal’s start to his Test career has been extraordinary but as he ventures into more testing conditions and evolves as a player, one would expect these numbers to drop.
But what we can expect to remain more or less constant is Jaiswal’s naturally aggressive style of play. Across all first-class cricket, a slightly larger sample size than just Tests, he averages a stunning 70.5, while striking at 68.8. For India, if he remains consistent, he becomes a powerful weapon, capable of either battening down the hatches or taking the game away from opponents in a session.
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