Day 2 of the first test between WI and IND saw Yashasvi Jaiswal and Rohit Sharma smash tons for India to score 312/2

Yashasvi Jaiswal, a young guy from Bhadohi who hardened up on the brutal Mumbai Maidans, had his best day ever on a cricket field as India completely dominated the second day of the first Test against the West Indies. Yashasvi scored an unconquerable debut hundred.

India batted cautiously but effectively enough to gradually bat West Indies out of the game, finishing the second day on 312 for two. Skipper Rohit Sharma (103 off 221 balls) also eschewed his natural flair en route to his 10th Test hundred and a record 229-run opening stand with Jaiswal (143 batting, 350 balls). India only scored 232 runs in 90 overs overall.

Jaiswal, who batted the whole second day, was joined by the seasoned Virat Kohli (36 batting, 96 balls), and the two combined for a third-wicket partnership of 72 runs.

India now leads by 162 runs and is anticipated to bat for the most of the third day before unleashing Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja once again on an opponent that has the technical ability to stop them for two days.

Players like the 21-year-old Jaiswal and the 36-year-old Rohit may be considered the polar opposites of what the Mumbai school of ‘Khadoos’ batsmanship stands for. Both have their own kind of flamboyance.

On Thursday, though, they were able to express their inner “Khadoos Mumbaikar,” as it took Jaiswal 215 balls to become the 14th Indian debutant to achieve a hundred, while Rohit needed 220 balls to accomplish his milestone.

There were two Mumbai players opening for the nation for the first time since India’s 1982 tour of England, when Suru Nayak and Sunil Gavaskar put up the greatest ever partnership of 229 against the West Indies, surpassing the previous mark of 201 achieved by Sanjay Bangar and Virender Sehwag back in 2001.

The ball gripped and there were several slow turns available on the two-paced Windsor Park circuit. On such surfaces, it is challenging to score fast but not too difficult to linger about and grind the opponent into submission.

At its finest, it was traditional Test match batting. This is what Jaiswal and Rohit did. When they found deliveries to be gripping, both players trusted their defensive strategy and waited for the loose deliveries since none of the West Indies bowlers seemed to be a danger.

Jaiswal’s hundred will undoubtedly cause some jubilation among admirers because of his charming rags to riches success tale.

One wants to see the young guy succeed after hearing his tale of selling Panipuris on Mumbai’s Azad Maidan and scaling a boundary wall to watch the IPL on a huge screen.

Jaiswal let out a huge yell of relief as he played what seemed to be a half-sweep-half lap shot towards backward square leg for a single and then bowed into the dressing room. He had 14 fours in his inning, with the greatest being the pull against Alzarri Joseph that brought him to fifty.

His sound technique, good sense of where his off-stump was, and extremely secure footwork against spinners were what stood out on the day. He seems to be a ready package for international cricket when his excellent temperament is added to the mix, along with his incredible patience and preference for loose deliveries.

What this century showed was that he is capable of competing at the highest level, but given the track and the weak attack he faced, it is impossible to predict how he would do in harder environments like South Africa and Australia.

Perhaps the assault and the pitch’s characteristics prevented a free-flowing strokemaker like Rohit from being overjoyed even after reaching a hundred runs.

Rohit’s flicked six over deep mid-wicket off Joseph (0/65 in 14 overs) was the day’s greatest shot and was rewarded a million dollars. Off left-arm spinner Jomel Warrican, there was a backfoot square cut and another easy six in the same area. When the India captain’s defensive poke off newcomer Alick Athanaze’s off-break soared up for keeper Joshua Da Silva to clinch an easy catch, he was dismissed soon after making his tenth Test century.

Shubman Gill’s (6 off 10 balls) first game at No. 3 didn’t go well since he was penalized for spending roughly 76 overs sitting in the dugout with his pads on.

After a calm first session that generated 66 runs, the second session was the most fruitful with 99 runs, and the third session, which produced 67 runs, again tapered down.

In fact, the pace of the ground was so sluggish that Jaiswal was overheard saying Kohli, “I’m hitting hard, but the ball isn’t going anywhere,” on the stump microphone. After Shikhar Dhawan (against Australia in 2013) and Prithvi Shaw (against the West Indies in 2018), Jaiswal became the third Indian opener to make a hundred on Test debut.

While Shaw, who was the greatest thing to come out of Mumbai’s batting stable, lost his way a little after a blistering start to his international career, Dhawan was unable to duplicate that day in Mohali in his subsequent 33 games.

Jaiswal would believe that this beginning is the cornerstone of much larger things to come in the days to come.