West Indies legend makes special plea to Jaiswal

Yashasvi Jaiswal top-scored for India in the first innings of the ongoing second Test against the West Indies at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi. The 23-year-old left-handed batter opened the innings and,

with the help of 22 fours, scored 175 runs from 258 balls. He smacked the West Indies bowlers to all corners of the Feroz Shah Kotla ground on Day 1 of the red-ball match and set the foundation of a big total for the hosts.

For his super show with the bat, the youngster from Mumbai also received big praise from former West Indies captain and legendary batter Brian Lara. In a video shared by BCCI’s official Instagram handle on Sunday morning, Lara, who is in Delhi these days, congratulated Jaiswal by hugging him and then made a special request to him by saying, “Don’t beat our bowlers that bad.”

Here’s a look:

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Jaiswal, who is India’s highest-ranked Test batter, played beautiful drives against the West Indies bowlers on Friday, and they looked clueless against him.

Speaking about his mindset while batting, Jaiswal said that he always tries to make sure that he bats for as long as he can.

“I always put the team first, how I can play for my team and what is important for my team at that moment in time. So I always think that, and that gives me the answer to how I can play, what shots I can play, how the wicket is, and if I’m there, I make sure that I take it as long as I can. So that is all my mindset that if I have a start, I make sure that I should make it big, just like that.”

In the second and third sessions of Day 1, Jaiswal added 193 runs for the second wicket with B Sai Sudharsan, who made 87 runs from 165 balls. According to Jaiswal, Sudharsan played really well, and he was also full of praise for Shubman Gill, who remained unbeaten on 129 runs.

“We (Jaiswal and Sudharsan) were just chatting in the middle that if we are set, we should take it long, and we need to play our shots as well, and we were just trying to rotate the strikes and score runs when there is an opportunity, and I think he played really well.”

“Gill bhai has batted amazingly as always, and that is what we were talking about if we are in. So we should make it count and just keep playing our instinct as well. If there is a new ball, we should go for runs, and it was very nice to bat with him. The way he bats and the way he runs the game when he is batting, I think it’s absolutely fantastic,” he added.

Jaiswal was set to score his third double century in Test cricket on Saturday morning, but a misunderstanding with Gill led to his run-out on the second ball of the 92nd over.