Yashasvi Jaiswal achieves unique feat in ENG vs IND 4th Test at Manchester

Old Trafford in Manchester has always been a hard place to bat for the Indian side. It’s not a venue that the Blue Brigade has enjoyed over the years in the longest format, having faced four defeats in nine attempts, and has yet to taste a victory in the five-day format. Under overcast conditions, the visiting captain, Shubman Gill, lost his fourth toss in Tests and was put to bat first.

Yashasvi Jaiswal and KL Rahul, both the opening batters of the side, negotiated the opening session beautifully. There were periods in the game when the home bowlers pitched the ball up and looked to get some help off the surface. Those created pressure on the batters, who smelt the ball on many occasions.

But both the batters seemed to bring developments in their batting skills. KL was positive in his approach from the start and was hardly shy away from nailing the bad balls into the boundary. On the other hand, the Mumbai batter left the balls outside the off-stump on many occasions and started to cement his feet in the middle.

Yashasvi Jaiswal makes unique record of half-century at Old Trafford in Manchester

Towards the end of the first session, Jaiswal timed the short ball from Jofra Archer over the wicket-keeper’s head for a beautiful six besides nailing the boundaries. In the second session, he continued with the same rhythm and smashed a fine half-century in the game. It was the first fifty by an Indian opener in the last 50 years at Old Trafford.

Apart from Jaiswal, Rahul scored 46 runs. Before this pair, the last individual highest score as an opening batter at this venue since 1975 was 25 by the former Indian head coach, Ravi Shastri. It just shows how hard batting at the opening position has been at this ground. He ended with 58 runs in 107 balls with the help of 10 boundaries and one six before getting an outside edge into the hands of Harry Brook at slips.

Jaiswal is currently the seventh leading run-getter of the series. The southpaw has drilled 291 runs in seven innings at an average of 41.57 and a strike rate of nearly 70 with the help of two fifties and one century.