India are set to square off against England in the fifth and final Test of the series from March 7 at the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium in Dharamsala. Having already won the series, thanks to their five-wicket win at the JSCA International Stadium Complex in Ranchi, India head into the final Test with a 3-1 scoreline, and nothing to lose. The series will long be remembered for how the Indian team managed to defy the odds and nullify the ‘Bazball’ threat. With so many inexperienced players – and several making their debuts – the team has managed to get the better of perhaps the best England team to have toured India since 2012 when they beat the hosts 2-1.
However, one man who has arguably impressed everyone the most is 22-year-old opener Yashasvi Jaiswal. Only an eight-Test veteran, Jaiswal is already close to crossing the 1000-run landmark in Tests. He is having an absolutely phenomenal series with the bat, scoring two half-centuries and as many hundreds (both of them double centuries).
In four Tests, Yashasvi Jaiswal’s tally stands at 655 runs at an average of 93.57. He has already broken the record for the most runs in a series by a left-handed batsman, while he has equalled Virat Kohli’s tally of 655 runs for the most runs in a Test series against England.
However, the domineering southpaw can break Sunil Gavaskar’s all-time record in Dharamsala. Gavaskar scored 774 runs in four Tests (eight innings) in his debut Test series against West Indies away from home in 1970. His tally in his debut series is the record for the most runs scored by an Indian batsman in a Test series. Against the West Indies (again), but this time in India in 1978-79, Sunil Gavaskar scored a mammoth 732 runs, which happens to be the most runs scored by a player in a single Test series in India.
Yashasvi Jaiswal has the chance to eclipse both these records as he needs only 110 runs to be the new record-holder for India. If he scores 135 runs in the final Test against England, then he will also become the first-ever Indian batsman to surpass the 800-run mark in a single Test series. It would be simply outrageous if that does happen. But it would be a solid testament to the fact that Jaiswal is a generational player.
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