Yashasvi Jaiswal, Joe Root and the chances of breaking an unbreakable record

New York Times

3 days ago

Much was made of Joe Root's chances of becoming the leading run-scorer in Test history when he went past Ricky Ponting in Manchester last week to go second on the all-time list.
But there is another candidate to break one of cricket's most unbreakable records and, in time, go past Sachin Tendulkar's high of 15,921 runs at the highest level.
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Yashasvi Jaiswal is 23, is currently playing in only his 24th Test and has made 2,209 runs, meaning he needs to score the small matter of… another 13,712 to go past his countryman. But there is a strong case to say Jaiswal is the only active Test cricketer with any hope of usurping both Tendulkar and Root, even though it will take him a long time to do so.
Hyperbole? Well, Jaiswal will have to maintain his standards, fitness and hunger for both batting and scoring runs until he is something like 36 years old before he would get close.
But he showed again on Saturday, the third day of the fifth and final Test against England, at the Oval in south London that he remains the brightest batting star in India's galaxy of young talents and could dominate on the world stage in all formats in the years to come.
Jaiswal certainly had help in reaching his sixth Test century, and fourth against England, on a day when India took big strides towards squaring this compelling series.
He was dropped three times en route to making 118 in India's second innings of 396, on 20, 40 and 110, as England did their best to throw away their hopes of their most significant series win under captain Ben Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum with six dropped catches in all.
But there was plenty of the mix of orthodoxy and breathtaking innovation that saw Jaiswal announce himself to England last year with two double centuries on home soil as an opener who they have kept pretty quiet since his century in the first Test in Leeds found the perfect tempo on the most difficult pitch of the series.
Jaiswal played positively but not recklessly and with great intent before he finally fell to one of the upper cuts he usually plays so well, this time finding Jamie Overton on the point boundary to become one of Josh Tongue's five victims.
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He showed just how much it means and just how hungry he is, too, by becoming nervous in the 90s and agitated with his partner Karun Nair when he refused to come back for a third run, to complete his century, that would have been tight at best.
No matter.
Jaiswal reached three figures with a single next ball before running towards the India dressing room and blowing kisses at his team-mates on the balcony, also making a heart shape with his fingers to demonstrate his love for them and for Test cricket.
'I wanted to do more,' said Jaiswal afterwards. 'I wanted my innings to be bigger than that. But it was OK. I enjoy batting and I always want to bat as long as I can. There is a lot for me to learn, but I am proud of myself and all my team-mates for what we've done.'
So, why is there no one else who could get close to Tendulkar?
There have long been four batters considered head and shoulders above any other active players.
The first of the big four, India's Virat Kohli, retired from Test cricket earlier this year at age 36 with 9,320 runs to his name.
A second, Kane Williamson, can be ruled out because New Zealand simply do not play enough Test cricket to allow him, at just about to turn 35, to add enough runs to his tally of 9,276 and challenge Tendulkar.
A third, Australia's Steve Smith, who has 10,477 Test runs and is 36, ruled himself out during a conversation with The Athletic this week when he said: 'I don't think I will get there. I'm just happy playing and contributing whenever I can. I'm not one for those personal milestones. As long as I'm still playing and playing well, I'll be happy.'
Then there is Root, who really does have a chance of going past Tendulkar.
Root is 34, batting as well as ever and has 13,438 Test runs after his century at Old Trafford, going into his final Test innings of the summer at the Oval some time tomorrow. He probably needs another two and a half years of consistent run-making to topple Tendulkar.
Such is the game's modern calendar, where franchise competitions are challenging the primacy of international cricket like never before, only England, India and Australia play anything like enough Test cricket for their players to score a mountain of runs.
There is nobody really in an ageing Australia side, other than Smith, who could even come close. Another Indian batter cannot be discounted, but even though Shubman Gill completed this series on Saturday with a mammoth 754 runs at 75.40, he has only a few hundred more than Jaiswal and is two years older. (And, whisper it, but despite his Bradmanesque run-scoring this summer, Gill has not shown enough in a 37-Test career to suggest he can be as consistently good as Jaiswal.)
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There is the intriguing prospect of what Vaibhav Suryavanshi who, at just 14, became the youngest century-maker in the IPL this year, reaching three figures off just 35 balls, will do with his career. But as he has yet to play Test cricket, we should not really be mentioning him in the same breath as Tendulkar for now.
Only from England can another candidate be found other than Root, with Harry Brook a possibility but he is, at 26, a year older than Gill and again has only a few hundred more runs than Jaiswal. He also has plenty on his hands as England's white-ball captain.
If there is to be another 'big four', then Jaiswal will certainly be among them and, as an opener, will have every opportunity to make big runs in every Test he plays.
He certainly played his part in India's dominant third-day performance on Saturday, which left England needing 374 to win this match and clinch the series 3-1.
They looked like they would reach the close without loss to keep this compelling series very much alive until Mohammed Siraj conjured a dramatic end to another brilliant day of Test cricket when he bowled Zak Crawley with a yorker off what became the final ball of the day.
England have pulled off chases like this against India before – successfully reaching 378 at Edgbaston in 2022 and 371 at Headingley at the start of this series.
Can they do it again on a pitch still offering plenty of encouragement for the bowlers?
India are firm favourites but it will be fascinating to see if England, a player short because of Chris Woakes' shoulder injury and resuming a man down at 50 for one, can come close tomorrow.
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