Yashasvi Jaiswal joins the list of great Indian cricket players like Sachin Tendulkar, breaking Virat Kohli’s record.
The left-handed opener currently sitting at No. 5 in the ICC Test batter rankings has garnered over 1,350 runs in Test cricket in the current calendar year.
During the highly tensed fourth Test against Australia on the hallowed turf of the Melbourne Cricket Ground, a very disciplined knock by 22-year-old Jaiswal off 70 deliveries for 38 runs portrayed his temperament and prowess. He wants to give his country momentous innings that will translate their dreams of winning the test and securing a historical series victory over Australia for the third consecutive time.
Making records and beating legends is nothing but what has been done here.
On the second session of the second day’s play on December 27, Jaiswal entered the Indian cricket record book, his single-year Test run tally surpassing that of Virat Kohli, 1,322. This was a feat Kohli, the modern colossus of cricket had achieved in 13 matches in the calendar year 2018. Jaiswal made his Test debut against the West Indies in July 2023 and crossed this figure in just 15 Tests, including a breathtaking 161-run display in Perth.
This positions Jaiswal in an extremely diminutive league of Indian scorers who have the highest aggregate in Test matches for the entire calendar year. But this is rather remarkable when some cricket legends ahead of him read Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Sunil Gavaskar, Gundappa Viswanath, and Rahul Dravid – icons whose performances inspired and captivated successive generations of people.
Going past Rahul Dravid’s tally
Standing on the threshold of another milestone, Jaiswal is just seven runs away from surpassing Rahul Dravid’s 2002 total of 1,357 runs in 16 matches. A former captain and head coach, Dravid remains a symbol of discipline and technique in Indian cricket. Crossing this mark will mark Jaiswal’s rise as a modern-day maestro.
There are many celebrities in the sport of cricket. However, the most shining star in this pantheon of stardom is the genius par excellence Sachin Tendulkar who scored a total of 1,562 runs from just 14 matches played in the year 2010. Those seven centuries and five half-centuries made that gigantic landmark of Tendulkar further reinstate him as the top run-scorer in the history of Test cricket.
Chasing Global Supremacy
Ambitions do not stop at the national record with Jaiswal. He still needs 257 runs to pass England’s Joe Root, who amassed 1,556 runs in the year and thus became the run-scorer of the year for Test cricket in 2024. The ultimate height, however, is that of Mohammad Yousuf who in 2006 compiled an astonishing 1,788 runs. Only two others outside the list of Yousuf, Viv Richards (1,710), and Root (1,708) scored more than 1,700 runs in any one calendar year.
The Shooting Star in the Constellation of Indian Cricket:
The meteoric rise of Yashasvi Jaiswal is a tale of arduous toil and passion as he continues to etch his legacy among the luminaries of Indian cricket. With every run and milestone achieved, he draws closer to scoring his name in the game. Thus, making his story an indelible part of cricket’s rich tapestry.
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