India skipper Rohit Sharma was not quick to praise youngster Yashashwi Jaiswal for laying the foundation for a 171-run victory in the two-match Test series against the West Indies at Windsor Park on Friday. Jaiswal made the most of the opportunity he got in his Test debut. He took on the bowlers and managed to hold his nerve throughout his 501-minute innings without panicking.
The Indian skipper shared some special words about Test debutant Yashaswi Jaiswal, saying in the post-match presentation, “He’s got the talent, he’s shown us before that he’s ready. He came in and batted sensibly. Tested character. , he never panicked at any point.”
Rohit, who also has the experience of scoring a century on his Test debut against the West Indies a decade ago, said all he told Jaiswal during their partnership was that he belonged at Test level.
“In the middle, it was about having a chat, letting him know, ‘You’re here’. That’s the most important thing, because when you play your first Test match, you keep asking yourself whether you’re here or not, but my job from the other end was to keep telling him, ‘You’ve done it’.” And hard yards, it’s just enjoying your time in the middle. Don’t worry about the results, enjoy your time, if you do that the results will flow,” added Rohit.
He also praised the spin duo of Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja after they overwhelmed the hosts’ batting setup throughout the Test match.
Ashwin Gambhir has made a spectacular comeback after being left out of the final World Test Championship 2023 squad against Australia. He worked the West Indies batsmen lightly on a poor pitch that provided extra spin and bounce to the spinners.
Rohit said that given the pitch and overall conditions, it is a luxury to have spinners like them who are used to performing in such conditions.
“The results speak for themselves, they have been doing it for a while now. Not much to say about them, it’s about giving them the freedom to express themselves. The experience of these guys on pitches like this is always a luxury. Both Ash and Jadeja were excellent, especially Ashwin coming out and bowling like this,” Rohit said.
Rohit went on to say that he never intended to come out to bat a second time. They were batting long to score enough runs to restrict the Windies on a surface that didn’t get runs that easily.
“I want to start by saying it was a great effort with the ball. They were bowled out for 150 and that set the game up for us. We knew the batting was going to be tough and scoring runs was not going to be easy. We knew we had to bat. Just bat once. Get over 400, then we got out, bowled well, Rohit added.
Going into the match, India had beaten the hosts in every session over the course of three days.
West Indies were bowled out for 150 runs on the first day. India’s batsmen struggled in the remaining overs on Day 1, throughout Day 2 and the first session of Day 3. Rohit and Jaiswal’s opening stand was good enough. Their first wicket.
Ashwin took seven wickets in the second innings to ensure India’s victory before the end of the third day.
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