The previous captain of England, Alastair Cook, has been extremely commendatory towards an Indian opener, Yashasvi Jaiswal, who made a brilliant 161 in India’s resounding victory over Australia in the first Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. He even called him a “class player” but at the same time praised his confidence in sledging pacer Mitchell Starc. Jaiswal had made this wisecrack at Starc saying, “”You are coming too slow at me,” during his second-day play of the first Test in Perth. The left-arm fast-bowler smiled all away while he walked back to his mark.
“We’ve seen him celebrating quite a bit, although I do say Stella can say that for anywhere but in particular against Australia rather than England. And sledging Mitchell Starc, I think by some point he was telling him you’re bowling too slowly,” Cook is quoted as saying in TNT Sports.
“At 22-years-old, that just shows the confidence he has to say that,” Cook continued with, “With me, I have batted against Mitchell Starc, and he does not bowl slowly. If I thought he was bowling slowly, then I would keep my mouth shut and not wind him up, but have the confidence to do that as a 22-year-old.”
This year, Jaiswal has scored 1280 runs in 12 Test matches. In 2023, he became the second-most prolific run-scorer in Tests after the great Joe Root, who has amassed 1338 runs from 15 matches in his name.
“I think he has scored most of the runs by any Indian at the time after 15 Tests against the top order, which I’ll keep saying, no one else believes me: that’s the hardest place to bat. Classy player,” Cook said.
In order to be the highest run scorer for India in a calendar year, Jaiswal needs to score 283 runs by the end of 2024. The record of most runs in a calendar year by an Indian in Test matches is held by the batting icon and great Sachin Tendulkar, who scored 1562 runs in 14 Test matches in 2010.
