- The Indian cricket infrastructure has greatly strengthened in the last two decades or so and needs no further elaboration. Ever since the Indian Premier League (IPL) T20 tournament took shape and emerged as one of the most lucrative franchise-based leagues in the sporting world, there is simply no looking back for the Board of Control for Cricket in India donning the role of the pioneer in the sports. With the humongous amount of revenue generated courtesy of a huge following among Indian patrons, there is no dearth of sponsors willing to pump in money thereby strengthening the BCCI to dictate how the game takes shape in line with the changing times. The IPL has helped find some great local talents as well.
PC: Times of India
- Even though the T20 leagues cannot be a yardstick to find quality cricketers who could be eventually drafted into the ultimate form of the game i.e. Test matches, the consistently fabulous performances of talented cricketers cannot be ignored. Of course, we have a first-class cricket tournament in the form of the Ranji Trophy that provides the BCCI mandarins enough indications about emerging talent to represent India in the Test matches. Any cricketer worth his/her salt would vouch vociferously that the Test match is the ultimate form of the game testing the true worth of an individual where the bat and the ball are provided with a level playing field. Such is the strong foundation laid by the BCCI that we have no dearth of quality talent emerging.
- One such talent that must have hugely impressed not only the cricketing fraternity, experts, and ex-cricketers but also the fans is young opener Yashaswi Jaiswal. The Mumbai batsman has made tremendous progress in the last three years in all forms of the game duly reinforcing the faith shown by the selectors at various stages. Mind you, Jaiswal has proved his mettle in the shortest format of the game by notching up impressive scores in the IPL. The consistency shown by the batter was duly noticed. Not only the IPL, but Jaiswal has also scored tons of runs representing Mumbai in the Ranji Trophy over the last few years. It was just a matter of time before he was drafted into the Test team. He hasn’t looked back since making his debut against the West Indies.
PC: Yashasvi Jaiswal
- Remember, he scored a century on debut last year and is scoring consistently in all formats. The ongoing five-match Test series between India and England has seen Jaiswal notch up a scintillating double hundred in the second Test being played at Vizag becoming the third-youngest Indian to achieve the feat. He has shown great composure and presence of mind while handling both the pace and spin attack with panache. Most welcomingly, Jaiswal is a free-scoring batsman who wishes to take the attack to the opposition rather than scratch around. His attacking instincts hugely helped the Indian team to notch up a formidable score in the first innings even as other batsmen struggled to score. Hopefully, Jaiswal will continue to impress with consistent scores.
