From boys to men: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sarfaraz Khan sparkle for India
On a warm Sunday afternoon in Rajkot, Sarfaraz Khan let Yashasvi Jaiswal lead the way back to the dressing room and soak in all the applause following their unbeaten 172-run partnership off 158 balls that set up India's declaration and 434-run win. Never mind the nervy moments while running between the wickets, Sarfaraz is Jaiswal's school senior by four years.
For Jaiswal, a second consecutive double century made him only the third Indian to achieve the feat after Vinod Kambli and Virat Kohli. Jaiswal’s free-flowing range against spin — he hit 12 sixes, another record — reminds one of Kambli, the hugely flamboyant Mumbai left-hander of the 1990s. Jaiswal appears to have the attributes to stay the course. Sarfaraz, on debut, put together two fifties — 62 and 68*.
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Together, for 106 minutes on Sunday, Jaiswal and Sarfaraz batted with the freedom that they would for Rizvi Springfield school, Bandra — famous for producing a rich line of prodigious batting talents including Prithvi Shaw. The pressure of Test cricket didn’t seem to bother them as they toyed with England's bowling attack.
Their back stories are intertwined. Both are Uttar Pradesh natives. Jaiswal, born in Bhadohi district, had taken a train from Prayagraj to Mumbai fifteen years back. Around the same time, Sarfaraz, as a 12-year-old, made his first headline-grabbing score — 434 in a Harris Shield (U16) inter-school match. Sarfaraz’s father, Naushad, had moved from UP to Mumbai to make a cricket career.
Even before Jaiswal changed his school to Rizvi, Jaiswal was already a prolific scorer in Giles Shield (U14). “There was a time when he scored 16 hundreds across tournaments in a year,” his school coach Raju Pathak recalls. To have an appetite for big scores at age-group level is one thing. To do it against the big boys is quite another.
The duo joined hands after nightwatcher Kuldeep Yadav frustrated England with his 91-ball stay at the crease in the morning session. Jaiswal was already on 104 overnight and India’s lead 384. England's spinners aren’t polished gems, but they had still matched India's bowlers in the first two Tests. To them, Jaiswal and Sarfaraz showed scant respect.
England may not have known that hitting through cow corner is Sarfaraz’s favoured zone. He frequently went down on one knee and dispatched leg-spinner Rehan Ahmed over midwicket.
Jaiswal takes Anderson apartAfter tea, Stokes went to James Anderson — four wickets short of 700 — to bowl to Jaiswal. With a heavily packed off-side field, Anderson began bowling really wide to the left-hander before trying to catch him off guard with a delivery on the stumps. Jaiswal, almost half of Anderson's age, was up to the task, going low and smashing a full toss over deep backward square leg. Next ball, Jaiswal walked down the track and smashed Anderson over the cover boundary. By then Anderson appeared to have lost his will to punch back. Jaiswal stood tall and smashed the bowler over his head to bring up a hat-trick of sixes.
Anderson was given another over, but Sarfaraz also lifted his full-length delivery over square leg for a boundary, after which Jaiswal opened the face for a boundary to third man. With those 28 runs in 2 overs, Anderson was off the attack, taken down by two young men.
When Jaiswal was acknowledging the crowd after his double ton, Stokes was applauding from midwicket. “He’s a great player to watch. I like good players even if they are against me,” he told reporters. “It appeared to me like you are watching Rishabh Pant. Earlier, he took his time to get in and was struggling. But he sensed an opportunity to get started and he did. We need to get him out in the next four innings. Hopefully the double hundred theme does not continue.”
As Jaiswal leapt in the air to celebrate his double hundred with a single, his batting partner Sarfaraz also had both his hands up in celebration. Sarfaraz has lived the same struggle as Jaiswal. The milestone seemed to matter to him as much as it did to Jaiswal.
It also helps that they have an India captain in Rohit Sharma who understands the pulse of a Mumbai cricketer.
“I have been told that Sarfaraz has scored runs in difficult situations for Mumbai. That shows the mindset with which he plays and how he approaches the game,” Sharma said. “He has scored big runs… triple hundreds, double hundreds in domestic circuit. So, he is doing something right to be that consistent. We had no plan or discussion with him because I was told by his Mumbai teammates that it is better to leave him free and he will do the job.”
Aware that, in Jaiswal, India has found a gem, the captain wanted to be almost protective. “I won’t say anything on Jaiswal,” he said. “Everyone is talking about him. Let him play. He is playing well..it’s good for us and he is in good form. I am not going to say much more than that. Itna bas hai abhi ke liye (this should be enough on him for now).”
