Yashasvi Jaiswal wanted that hundred at MCG: Sanjay Manjrekar

Yashasvi Jaiswal played some brilliant cricket in the first innings of the Boxing Day Test against Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. He looked comfortable in dealing with the Aussie quicks and scored 82 runs before a goof-up with Virat Kohli led to his dismissal. The youngster drove it straight to the mid-on and immediately called for a run but Kohli, on the non-striker’s end, wasn’t keen, resulting in Jaiswal getting run out.

The dismissal also ruined Kohli’s concentration, who departed soon after the incident for 36 runs. Meanwhile, speaking on Jaiswal’s innings former cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar noted that the 23-year-old was eager to get to the century and highlighted that the cricketer was comfortable facing Australia quicks, barring Mitchell Starc early on. He also believes that Jaiswal’s century could have been more impressive than the one he hit in Perth.

“Yashasvi Jaiswal, for a guy who is so young, had a few things to say to Virat Kohli. He was making a case there. That shows how much the innings was important to him. Out of habit, he would have got a hundred and that hundred would have been even more impressive than the one that Perth. Although that was a big one, the pitch in Perth had become a little Indian-like for two days,” Manjrekar said during a discussion on ESPNcricinfo. 

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“This was a typical Australian pitch (and a) quality attack. So, he wanted that hundred. We saw that there are some great facets to Jaiswal’s batting. When he got to 50, he had spent two hours at the crease. So, that game he has. And, barring Mitchell Starc, he looks comfortable against all the other fast bowlers,” he added.

Meanwhile, Nitish Kumar Reddy and Washington Sundar batted brilliantly on Day 3 to help the visitors bridge the gap in the first innings. After back-to-back dismissals of Jaiswal and Kohli, India also lost the wickets of Rishabh Pant and Ravindra Jadeja rather cheaply. However, Reddy hit 114 and Sundar made 50 to help the Rohit Sharma-led side post 369 runs in the first innings.