Indian opener Yashasvi Jaiswal plays a shot during the fifth Test against England in Dharamsala. Jaiswal won the player-of-the-series award by scoring 702 runs with two hundreds and three fifties averaging 89.
| Photo Credit: ANI

The Player-of-the-Series award winner Yashasvi Jaiswal on March 9 attributed his overwhelming success in the five-Test rubber against England to his uninhibited approach while opening the innings.

Jaiswal ended the series with 712 runs with two hundreds and three fifties, averaging 89 and striking at 80.

“I was just thinking if I can take a bowler down, I will take him down. That’s the plan and there was no backing out,” said Jaiswal during the post-series presentation.

However, the left-hander, who became only the second Indian to score over 700 runs in a series after Sunil Gavaskar, said he wanted to keep his feet planted on the ground.

“I really enjoyed the series. I am trying to take it one game at a time and always thinking of how I can contribute to my team so that I can keep the team in a winning position,” he added.

Skipper Rohit Sharma too reminded Jaiswal of the need to remain humble and focussed.

“He’s got a long way to go, but it’s amazing to be in this position. When a guy’s got talent like that who can put pressure on the bowlers from the word go, there will be lots of challenges going forward. He is a tough guy and loves the challenges,” said Rohit.

Was trying to keep ball on good length: Kuldeep

Kuldeep Yadav was adjudged player of the match for his seven-wicket haul and a feisty 30 down the order that helped India stretch the lead.

The left-arm wrist spinner said he was just trying to keep the ball on a good length throughout his spells.

“I just focus on keeping it on a good length and that is very important for a spinner in this format. I was not thinking too much about what the batter was trying to do,” he said.

Kuldeep picked the wickets of Ben Stokes at Ranchi and Zak Crawley here as his favourite dismissals from the series.

“I really bowled well in Ranchi. The wicket was slow and the way I used the drift over there was fantastic. I liked the Stokes wicket in Ranchi.

“I also liked the Crawley wicket here (Dharamsala), that was a beautiful ball. I really liked my rhythm,” he said.

Kuldeep bowled England captain Stokes with a delivery that spun in from off-stump while right-hander Crawley got castled by his stock ball that turned in sharply from the fifth-stump line to disturb his stumps.

Rohit Sharma heaped praise on Kuldeep’s work ethics.

“He’s got a lot of potential and when the chips were down in the first innings (here), he bowled really well. He came back and worked at NCA after his injury. He is putting in a lot of effort and the most pleasing thing was his (improved) batting,” said Rohit.

Test cricket will see two players featuring in their 100th game together for only the fourth time when India off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin and England batter Jonny Bairstow take the field in Dharamsala on March 7.
| Photo Credit: K.R. Deepak/Getty Images

For R. Ashwin and Jonny Bairstow, this week at the foothills of the imposing Dhauladhar mountain ranges would coincide with their scaling ‘Peak 100’ in Tests.

When the fifth and final India-England Test opens here on Thursday, the duo would share the milestone of playing the 100th Test.

No doubt, Ashwin’s journey has been more glorious and comes days after he took the 500th Test wicket in a winning cause. In contrast, Bairstow still has not been in the best of forms with the bat in the series.

As Ashwin said, “A lot of things need to go your way when you have to get a breakthrough and also continue playing for so many years.”

Ashwin @ 100

Long journey

Indeed. Since his debut against the West Indies in Delhi in 2011, the off-spinner has come a long way.

Looking back, Ashwin chose to mention the 2012 England’s tour to India during which he learnt lessons that were to stand him in good stead.

“One of the turning points of my life was the England series when (Alastair) Cook came here and made all those runs along with (Kevin) Pietersen, who had a great game in Mumbai. It has been spoken about a lot. Leading into the next series against Australia at home, there was a lot of noise about me being left out of the team.

“And that is a wonderful lesson I have still kept with me all these years. Whatever happens, we can hold a lot of complaints against somebody external or blame it on another individual. But for me, if you look internally, you can improve at least by another five per cent.

“Until and unless there is something wrong with you, people aren’t going to throw punches at you or point fingers at you…”

Ashwin graciously acknowledged the role played by S. Badrinath, Mithun Manhas, and Rajat Bhatia during the days before he made it big. “These are some of the greatest batters of spin who I would have not wanted to encounter in international cricket. They were my finishing school before I went on to play international cricket.”

On his part, Bairstow declared, “Playing 100 Tests means a hell of a lot. It will be an emotional week for me.”

Bairstow, like Ashwin, made his debut against the West Indies but in 2012.

“No matter what it is, I’ll be going out there, chewing my gum, puffing my chest out and trying to have a good time with the other 10 blokes out there. Whatever the situation is, we’ll be going out there with smiles on our faces, like we have done in the whole series.”