IND vs ENG 3rd Test Day 3 Highlights: Jaiswal scores 100, India lead by 322

India vs England 3rd Test, Day 3, 3rd session Summary

India dominated the final round of play. They were 44/1 at tea and went on to score 152 runs in the final 35 overs, bowled by English bowlers. Joe Root dismissed Rohit Sharma. Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shubman Gill scored 155 for the second wicket when the former was forced to retire injured due to a back spasm. However, this occurred before Jaiswal scored his third Test ton and Gill hit his fifth fifty in the red ball format.

Rajat Patidar’s poor Test record continued when he was out for a duck, while Gill and Kuldeep Yadav led India to stumps on Day 1 in Rajkot. At 196-2 in the second innings, India leads by 32a2 runs and has eight wickets.

In the new Indian opening, two Yashasvi Jaiswals live amicably together. Until the 27th over of the innings, when he decided he had had enough of poking around and burst against James Anderson to turn the tide in India’s favor, Jaiswal – the quintessential Test batsman – was on display. Of all the young players on the Indian team, he possesses the most concise defensive routine and the air of a batsman who has faced hundreds of balls in his formative years. The way everything aligns in his bat flow, from the head to the feet, reflects a dour senior batsman’s muscle memory and the confidence of having been there, done that a million times.

And yet, when the mood seizes him, Jaiswal can transform into the T20 beast that he is. But what he has impressively done is mix the two. Even as he defends compactly, his bat-flow is worth watching when he attacks the ball he deems attackable. He goes all-in. Like a tennis player ripping the forehand in rallies, the bat gets down in a blur from the top and comes around all the way through as he absolutely hammers the ball even when he crashes it along the ground.

The third day’s play saw the two Jaiswals inhabiting separate phases, and it’s time to zoom in on the game-turning moment.

Suddenly, after that manic phase, he was into his 90s when the only period where there seemed to be a battle between his intent and execution arrived. Mark Wood went with a bumper barrage and Jaiswal first tried to sell him a dummy by acting as if he was moving to leg but sliding back to position. Wood kept his poise and fired it at his throat and Jaiswal hopped to keep it down. Two more bouncers were kept out before he backed away for real outside leg and weakly cut to point.

But he seemed to settle a touch next over, defending Root, before slapping a shortish ball from Wood to the cover point boundary. He leapt as he reached the other end, calmly removed his gloves after keeping the bat down and did what’s become his signature celebration now: the hands swoop into his lip for a kiss on the fingers before he stretches them out, still facing his dressing room.

On 103, his back began to seize up and he slowly sank at the non-striker’s end after calling for medical attention. As he lay on his tummy, the physio worked vigorously on the lower back and stretched his left leg. Next over, the 43rd of the innings, Jaiswal pulled up again, and it seemed he was walking off with the physio when he suddenly stopped after he crossed the stumps at the other end and decided he wanted to carry on. But at the end of the next over, a message came out from the dressing room and he walked off the field.

But there was time for one final charming moment: Stokes would intervene and high-five Jaiswal, a better compliment to his knock can’t be thought of.

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