Yashasvi Jaiswal says it has been “nice and challenging” his first year playing international cricket

Just before play resumes on day three of the fourth Test of the five-match series at the JSCA International Stadium Complex in Ranchi on Sunday, Yashasvi Jaiswal described his time spent with the India national cricket team over the previous year or so as “a nice and challenging.”

It’s been enjoyable and demanding simultaneously. I’ve been attempting to extend my stay by learning how to play on various wickets. After a year with the Indian team, I’ve had several conversations about changing my perspective with Rahul sir and Rohit bhai. I try to stay focused on what my team needs. Speaking with the elders during the net sessions, I’m ready to play according to the circumstances,” Jaiswal said on JioCinema.

Following the cheap exit of Rohit Sharma, Jaiswal proved why he is the newest run machine in India by overcoming some nervous moments to record his fourth fifty-plus score of the series.

Over the course of four Test matches, Jaiswal amassed more than 600 runs in only seven innings. With an astounding strike rate of 78.32 and an average of 103, the teenage wonder has collected an astonishing 618 runs against England so far in this series. He has also hit two century and two half-centuries.

Jaiswal became the latest in a distinguished group of Indian icons to achieve the 600-run milestone in a Test series, which also includes Sunil Gavaskar (1971, 1978), Virat Kohli (2014, 2016, 2017), Dilip Sardesai (1971), and Rahul Dravid (2002). Just 156 runs separate Jaiswal from putting his name in cricket history, and he has the tantalising potential of breaking Gavaskar’s iconic mark of 774 runs against the West Indies in 1971.

Jaiswal showed off his daring stroke play on the second day of the Ranchi Test, smashing Virender Sehwag’s record for the most Test sixes by an Indian batsman in a calendar year. In only five matches in 2024, he scored an astounding 23 sixes. At an average of 71.84, he has amassed 934 runs in Test cricket, only 66 runs short of the prestigious 1000-run mark.

Jaiswal now joins the exclusive ranks of cricketers who have scored more than 600 runs in a Test series before turning 23: Sir Don Bradman, Sir Garfield Sobers, Graeme Smith, George Headley, and Neil Harvey.

In this series, the 22-year-old has scored 618 runs at an average of 103. Before low bounce did him in, he searched for another huge one.

There wasn’t much spin at first, but Yashasvi Jaiswal said, “I was looking to think as to how I was going to bat, so I was looking to get my bat in front of my pad, keep rotating the strike and find the boundaries.”

“We’re excited for today, we’ll enjoy the game and give it our all,” he said.