How did Yashasvi Jaiswal prepare for the James Anderson onslaught

How did Yashasvi Jaiswal prepare for the James Anderson onslaught

A couple of days before the Rajkot Test, Yashasvi Jaiswal would call for the throw-down specialists to the nets. He had already batted long, but wanted to work on something specific with them. It wasn’t the coaches telling him but it was on his initiative. He pointed to a spot on the length around off stump, and asked them to slant it away or straighten outside off stump. He kept leaving those balls that angled across and defending only the balls on the off stump. Occasionally, a ball would bounce more and he would yank his arms up to either tap them down or leave it alone.

Interestingly, as it would turn out, it was that kind of ball that got him out in the first innings, when he guided the delivery to slips. It might not have helped him on that occasion but it showed how well he prepared and played a part in him becoming the third youngest to score two double hundreds.

It would help him in the second innings where he had to start twice as he had to retire hurt on the third evening due to lower-back spasms. He started cautiously, playing himself in, before opening up dramatically. Even though he was well past the hundred when he retired, he started again as if he were on zero. Tuk-tuk. Bat and pad pressed close together in defense and left the balls outside off from James Anderson.

The opposing captain Ben Stokes too noticed it. “The way he took his time to get in, even today … he is a great player to watch.”

In a double ton that would be remembered for all the thunderous hits – the hat-trick of sixes off Anderson where he swept over square-leg, charged out to clear cover boundary and smashed to the sight screen, it’s these quiet settling-in periods that might not be noticed much, but are a testament to his batting approach and character.

Something in Anderson eggs him on. On the third afternoon too, he unloaded against him. The game was hanging in a balance with Shubman Gill understandably circumspect and in a bit of a bother against Anderson’s reverse swing. Anderson moved in to pack a ring of men close and in Jaiswal’s eyeline. An arc of fielders from short cover to short midwicket. The message seemed to be: ‘C’mon show me what you got!’ It was also perhaps to make Jaiswal try to go wider of this ring, which meant he would have to play across the line to a reversing ball.

Instead, Jaiswal chose to smoke him with big shots, secure in the confidence that even a top edge that goes behind the stumps wasn’t going to find any English palms waiting as they were all mostly in front. So he pulled repeatedly, one flew to third man boundary, and Anderson was soon off the attack. We need more match evidence at this level to form an opinion about Jaiswal in such situations: would he take the aggressive approach out of almost an adrenaline rush or does he take deliberate risks to go with his plan.

Cool head, wise responses

There was a moment in the fourth over of the second innings of the second Test too. When off-spinner Shoaib Bashir floated a ball full outside off stump, Jaiswal went for his ferocious cut shot and under-edged it awkwardly. He had attempted that shot in the first innings too – that same full length not conducive for the cut in theory, again pretty early in the piece, and it just about cleared the point fielder. This time around, his partner and captain Rohit Sharma wasn’t too pleased, and quickly strode across to tell him not to play that shot. He pointed the bat straighter in the ground, seemingly telling him to play straighter.

The captain had just told him to be careful in a way that might have been seen as admonishment by some, but Jaiswal knows his skipper more than many. He took what he wanted: that bat pointing to the straighter part of the ground. But his response was still worth a watch. He blocked the next ball and punched the following ball to cover. When Bashir floated the ball the next in a similar spot as the first that had led to the iffy cut, Jaiswal hammered it to the straight boundary. Next ball was just outside off, but not as full but from a good length, and Jaiswal didn’t have a moment’s hesitation in unfurling the cut shot to the point boundary. The next delivery was fuller and on the leg stump line and Jaiswal still drove it to the straight boundary past his captain, who quietly went across to punch his gloves.

Little big moments like that tell a story about Jaiswal’s batting and character. Old timers will want to hold their opinions until they see Jaiswal handle the moving ball in England and extra bounce on Australia before they nod their heads in approval. He had a series in South Africa where his top score in four innings was 28 but they were spiced up-pitches where nobody scored and a conclusion can’t be drawn. Australia at the end of the year will now be his next big Test, but one thing is certain. He will do his preparations extensively and will be ready.

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