How often does a player in Test cricket score a double hundred, let alone back-to-back knocks of 200 or more? Last week, Yashasvi Jaiswal, who only made his India debut last July in West Indies, became only the third Indian player, after Virat Kohli and Vinod Kambli, and sixth overall to achieve that feat. The 22-year-old also became the third youngest player to have two double tons to his name after Sir Don Bradman and Kambli. Yet, India captain Rohit Sharma restrained himself from praising the youngster on his monumental feat. It did seem a bit startling for onlookers, but teammate Shubman Gill revealed the true reason behind Rohit Sharma's act.
Jaiswal has become a sensation following his stellar run in the ongoing Test series against England at home. After missing out on a ton in the opener in Hyderabad last month, Jaiswal notched up a record 209 in the second Test in Vizag before smashing an unbeaten 214 in Rajkot in the third Test to amass more than 500 runs in the contest.
Former cricketers across the globe has gone beserk watching the youngster's performance with few comparing him with the likes of Bradman, Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag while the great Kevin Pietersen exclaimed that Jaiswal has "no weakness".
Yet Rohit did not utter much praise for Jaiswal, either in Vizag or Rajkot. He explained on both occasions that he wants the left-hander to remain grounded and not get carried away by all the discussions around him.
Speaking to the media in Ranchi ahead of the fourth Test against England, Gill denied that talk that there has been a conscious effort from the management not to speak much about Jaiswal's achievements, as he hailed the India opener as a "sensational player". He indicated that Rohit might talk about Jaiswal's performance after the end of the series.
"I don't think there's a problem with the youngsters being not humble. We have seen Jaiswal scoring back-to-back double hundreds. If you don't have it in you, you won't be able to score back-to-back double tons. There aren't many people in the world who have scored back-to-back double hundreds in Test cricket. So he definitely is a sensational player. We have seen it. I think he's played around eight or nine Tests. We have seen it in him. I don't think there's any conscious decision. Maybe Rohit bhai didn't want to talk about it at that point of time," he said.
{{/usCountry}}"I don't think there's a problem with the youngsters being not humble. We have seen Jaiswal scoring back-to-back double hundreds. If you don't have it in you, you won't be able to score back-to-back double tons. There aren't many people in the world who have scored back-to-back double hundreds in Test cricket. So he definitely is a sensational player. We have seen it. I think he's played around eight or nine Tests. We have seen it in him. I don't think there's any conscious decision. Maybe Rohit bhai didn't want to talk about it at that point of time," he said.
{{/usCountry}}Jaiswal has scored 545 runs in six innings in the series against England. This is only the eighth time an Indian batter has scored more than 500 runs in a contest against England. If he manages to add 111 runs more over the course of the next two matches, he will shatter Virat Kohli's record (655 runs in 2016/17 series) for the most runs scored by an Indian batter in a Test series against England.