Jimmy vs Jaiswal: a who-is-gonna-do-it thriller

Yashasvi Jaiswal is winding up. Except, it looks like the ball doesn't want to suffer what he has in mind. It's fuller than he wants it to be. Had he gone through with the shot - a lash through cover - he might well have yorked himself, like he did in Hyderabad, digging out a return catch on 80 to start the second day's proceedings.

"Sometimes I can make a mistake and get out. Still, I'm learning. If I do make a mistake, I'll make sure that I try to learn from it."

It looked like Jaiswal had got a bit carried away in the first Test; as if he saw no sense in trying to hold back.

"We didn't get a hundred, you know, we didn't get somebody getting a really big hundred for us. So, in some ways, in India, I just felt we left those 70, 80 runs back in the hut in the first innings."

Some batters are able to magically be in a position to hit the ball wherever they like and it is only upon seeing replays that we realise what's gone on. What we try to break down frame by frame is simply a celebration of their instinct. In some ways, Jaiswal would have found it harder not to hit the six that took him from 63 to 69.

And perhaps it was to commemorate the effort as much as the landmark that Jaiswal was ultra-animated as he brought up his first Test match century at home. First, there was the simple raise of the bat and helmet. Then the stare up into the heavens. Then two or three pumps of both his hands after he'd spread them out wide on either side (Joe Root did that after he dismissed KL Rahul in Hyderabad). On and on it went.

This wasn't a typical Jaiswal innings. It began with a loose shot but then quickly became something else. A precise, almost pain-staking occupation of the crease. 179 runs. 257 balls. 93 overs.

James Anderson was so mean. He kept trying to take candy from the babies. India's young batters rarely get the chance to frolic on such pitches - Visakhapatnam was featherbed-adjacent - and yet here they were, caught on the crease, pushing away from their bodies, being beaten on both edges and in Shubman Gill's case, made to feel a tiny bit inconsequential. He averages 7.8 against Anderson now.

Jaiswal was lucky to survive England's fast bowling stalwart. The morning session was a tense little affair. A whodunnit except it was more who's gonna do it? India were missing one all-time great, one who bails them out by batting anywhere in the middle order (and keeping wicket when need be), and one allrounder who's, lately, been averaging more than the aforementioned all-time great. Just the perfect time, then, to also lose your captain for 14.

Of the 36 trips Jaiswal has made to the crease in first-class cricket, only five have been a longer, more satisfying stay. He was immensely selective with his shots; anything on a good length and in line with the stumps was treated with an excess of caution. Anything that afforded him the freedom of his hands was treated with joyous disdain.

Which brings us back to the six that took him from 63 to 69. It is only the fourth shot that Jaiswal hits in the air. But to do so, he leans ever so slightly back, searching for leverage. That cannot have been a conscious decision. There was no time to make one. It was just his training, his instinct, his genius kicking in and positioning him where he needed to be.

Jaiswal showed a glimmer of these skills in an IPL match in 2023 where he made 124 off 62 balls with 16 fours and eight sixes. The next highest score was 18 off 19. The bowling - and the jeopardy - here was much more pronounced. Late in the day, when India lost a very solid looking Rajat Patidar on debut in unfortunate circumstances, and England were trying to capitalise on that with Anderson coming back and generating reverse swing, the grizzled old vet was being kept out by a kid with 0.03 times his Test match experience.

Jaiswal vs Anderson was the beating heart of the day's play. A batter who is renowned for his attacking prowess understood that 8 off 47 in this head-to-head was a win. And a bowler who is revered/reviled for his ability to hoop the ball around corners in friendly conditions showing he has always been way more than that. There was even a moment in the 71st over that captured this battle that was forever on a simmer. Anderson got the ball to skirt past the outside edge and for once it looked like Jaiswal had followed the away movement. Immediately he stepped aside and practiced the leave.

Visakhapatnam will soon start to become inhospitable for batting. There was already evidence of the ball keeping low and kicking up on the first day. India's head coach Rahul Dravid went up to the pitch at both intervals, having a close look at the footmarks that have emerged, with the curator in tow. Bat once, bat big seemed like their strategy for this Test and it is (just barely) working right now only because their most extravagant strokemaker has done what was asked. Harness his instincts.