India opener Yashasvi Jaiswal made a big comeback in the second New Zealand A vs. India A four-day game that was played at the Hagley Oval, Christchurch. The high-scoring game ended in a draw, with India scoring 282/2 in the second innings.
Earlier, India was asked to bat first by New Zealand captain Rhys Mariu. Yashasvi Jaiswal fell for a four-ball duck, as India posted 346 runs thanks to 105 by Dhruv Jurel, 80 by Devdutt Padikkal, and Akash Deep’s 68.
New Zealand A replied with 424 runs, with Matthew Boyle scoring 110 and Dean Foxcroft making 93 runs. Mukesh Kumar picked 5/87, and Mohammed Siraj took four wickets for India A.
India’s second innings saw Sai Sudharsan falling for 11 runs and Devdutt Padikkal making a golden duck. But then Yashasvi Jaiswal slammed 155* in 162 balls with 15 fours and 5 sixes, while Yash Rathod made 100*, with the batters adding 245 unbeaten runs for the third wicket. India made 282/2 as the four-day game ended in a draw.
The left-handed batter was successful in scoring an impressive century in the second four-day game, which was drawn on Tuesday, as he managed to cope with the difficulties of batting in foreign conditions.
Following a period of struggle with his form, Jaiswal thinks that the key to once again performing consistently is to keep things simple for himself. Instead of making any drastic alterations, the young man manages to achieve results through his hard work.
"It's not that easy...Just focus on process, routine, and discipline. I think you have to be very disciplined here," Jaiswal said after the match, as quoted by Outlook India.
As Jaiswal had put it, he tends to bat close to his body and adjust himself according to the speed of the bowler. Even during his first innings, he made some changes in his starting posture to cope with the movement.
"Mainly, in my mind, the closer I play to the body, the better it is. Go to the ball and play. If you look at the first innings, my initial stance was behind. Then I changed again. If the bowler is not bowling fast, then you can manage the seam movement. If I get a loose ball, I will try to score runs. The rest is just an effort," he added.
According to Jaiswal, the ball seems to move a lot in the early part of the innings owing to the fact that it is cold in New Zealand and there are favorable bowling conditions. In addition, Jaiswal mentioned that “scoring chances will become easier as the age of the ball increases and the pitch becomes better for batting.” Nevertheless, he made sure not to say that the difficulty would vanish.
"It's very cold here. The ball moves a lot initially, and there is a lot of seam movement. And there are good bowlers hitting good areas consistently. So, we have to wait a lot to make runs initially. After that, when the wicket gets better, or the ball gets old, it's easy to make runs. I won't say it's easy, but you can play good shots. So, it was a lot of fun, and it feels good to play here. It's a very different experience," he added.
He pointed out that the weather situation in New Zealand makes it different from other foreign locations, such as Australia and England. Speaking about the changes witnessed in the last few days, Jaiswal stated that the weather had been mainly cloudy, but there were sometimes intervals of sun.
"New Zealand is a very different place (compared) to India, Australia, and even England. Because it's very cold here. If you look at the air, the whole day it was cloudy. Then for some time, the sun came out and left. It's been like this for the last four days," he said.
Jaiswal will be seen in the India colors when the two-Test series against New Zealand begins on November 18. The first Test will be played in Wellington, while the second Test will be played in Christchurch from November 27 onwards.
(Outlook India inputs)
