The Mumbai style of batting advocates not giving up your wicket when the bowling stops being a serious threat, but rather filling your boots when the chance arises.
On Day 2 of the first Test against the West Indies in Dominica, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Rohit Sharma carried out that action. The former in particular, who is also a Mumbaikar, displayed maturity beyond his 21 years of age by scoring a hundred on his Test debut and putting up a double-century opening stand with his captain, who also contributed to a tonne.
After jabbing the ball into the leg-side for his 100th run, Jaiswal leaped into the air with both arms raised and a bright smile on his face, making all the trials and sacrifices he had to make throughout his formative years worthwhile.
For seasoned batters, playing 350 balls in an inning is a commendable accomplishment. In his first game for India, Jaiswal repeated what he had previously done in first-class cricket at home. He had a stronghold on the game and was unbeaten at 143 at the end, leading India to 312/2, a margin of 162.
Late in the day, when an LBW appeal off of Kemar Roach was denied, a choice that would have been reversed on review, Jaiswal deserved the bit of good fortune. The West Indies, however, had already wasted three reviews.
The Windsor Park dry pitch was turning quite a bit, but Rahkeem Cornwall and Jamal Warrican aren’t world-class bowlers with a tonne of wickets to their names. As a result of the former’s early departure from the field, Kraigg Brathwaite was forced to bowl all but two of his team members, including himself, without getting much in return.
For 100 overs, they bowled with the old ball, which helped them control the scoring rate for the majority of the day. The Indians, too, were not in a great hurry and were willing to make sure the surface had as much abrasion as possible. As a result, only 232 runs were scored in the day’s 90 overs.
The bowling assault for the West Indies is not the best currently. However, a person can only confront what is in front of them. In order to eliminate the hosts from the game and force India to bat just once, Rohit and Jaiswal bowed their heads. Vijay Merchant, Dilip Sardesai, Sunil Gavaskar, and Sachin Tendulkar, among others, made it a point to make their runs matter when they were in and to keep their composure when they came too readily.
Rohit and Jaiswal could have successfully cemented an opening combination, a left-right partnership to boot, that could serve India with distinction over the following couple of years by imitating the titans of the past. It suddenly doesn’t seem like such a bad idea for Shubman Gill to move down to No. 3 in order to offer Jaiswal his desired position.
Jaiswal may have faced stronger bowling attacks in domestic cricket and the Indian Premier League, but he displayed incredible maturity and composure to bat for a very long time. In fact, one can be forgiven for forgetting that this is his first appearance in India colours.
Rohit conducted himself quietly and serenely on the other end. He was the skipper and knew what had to be done. The pitch isn’t likely to get any better for batting, and the hosts’ task will be even more difficult in the second essay given how poorly the West Indians handled Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja in the first innings.
A calm and apparent outcome, Rohit’s tenth Test century was achieved as he guided an Alick Athanaze full toss through the offside. The following delivery, though, saw him depart after he mishandled a catch to warn wicketkeeper Joshu da Silva. This put an end to their opening partnership’s 229 runs and gave the excellent newcomer his first Test victim.
Gill didn’t stay for very long either, but by that point India had a 90-run lead thanks to the long batting at their disposal, a poor home lineup, and a pitch that wasn’t getting any easier to bat on. The West Indies were clearly a far second-best team in the match.
Virat Kohli joined Jaiswal and, although not being his usual free-scoring self, managed to survive a few tense moments against spin. He was eager to bat time and build up a sizable advantage. The partnership was already worth 72 when the former skipper reached stumps unbeaten on 36.
The Indian batters could only be faulted for not applying more pressure to the West Indies bowlers in the opening session. After 80 runs were scored in 23 overs late on Day 1, only 66 runs were scored in 32 overs. In 32 overs, the final session produced 67.
Early in the second session, India passed the West Indies total of 150, and the two openers afterwards displayed a little more initiative. With the upper hand, Rohit and Jaiswal briefly switched into white-ball mode by moving around the crease, hitting overhead shots, and generally acting much more aggressively.
A lopsided contest resulted from the sides’ seeming mismatch and the match’s apparent inevitability of the direction it would go.
It doesn’t really tell much about the match-up when one team is bowled out for 150 on the first day after winning the toss while the other scores significantly more without losing a wicket. India had to be ruthless and do everything it took because the WTC points table penalises teams for losing games they could have won.
When the day began, India was just 70 runs behind the West Indies’ total, but despite not taking a single wicket in the 32 overs they bowled in the morning session, they were unable to tie the first innings score. There was a lot of turn available, and Cornwall’s spin and bounce bothered Jaiswal and Rohit. However, neither the heavy off-spinner nor the left-arm spinner Warrican displayed the consistency required to benefit from favourable circumstances. Instead of taking the game by the scruff of the neck in the opening session, the Indian openers chose to grind the opponent.
Both batsmen appeared prepared to wait it out, hoping to establish the groundwork for a sizable first innings advantage that would give India one chance to bat in the match. But it contradicted India’s alleged strategy of choosing the aggressive option for the upcoming World Test Championship (WTC) cycle.
But before being too daring, the Indians wanted to get far ahead of the game. Sharma sought to make up for some recent mediocre performances while Jaiswal was playing in his first Test match. It’s simple to be upbeat when your team is hundreds of runs ahead, but with the bowling hardly posing any major challenges — aside from the occasional ball that beat the bat and a few tense moments because the ball veered off course — the result of the day and the match seemed to be a formality. The commentators were forced to discuss Dominica’s spectacular tourism attractions as well as India’s next series in the current WTC cycle (as this one was presumably already thought to be in the bag).
Although the West Indies have become a better Test team in recent years, particularly at home, even an Indian squad without some of its major players appears to be a difficult opponent.
