Batter Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shubman Gill, with a double hundred and a century in the 2nd Test against England, have proven that India’s next generation of batters are set to take over. Gill has been around for a bit, but with Jaiswal scoring a maiden Test double at just 22 years of age, has emerged as a huge positive for India, who are pushing to level the series at Visakhapatnam. The fact that they are able to do so owes to Gill and Jaiswal, whose knocks allowed India to set England 399 to win.
Jaiswal and Gill’s knocks captured the attention of former cricketers all around, but Virender Sehwag‘s post on the young duo takes the cake. The former India opener backed the two ‘Under-25’ youngsters to ‘dominate world cricket for the next 10 years’. And why not? Gill and Jaiswal are tipped to lead India’s batting post the transition phase, when the likes of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma decide to call it a day, and the way they have started their career, Sehwag’s prediction can indeed come true.
“Glad to see two youngsters, both under 25 rising to the occasion and standing out. Very likely that these two will dominate world cricket for the next decade and more,” posted Sehwag.
Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly did it 28 years ago
Incidentally, Jaiswal and Gill’s centuries in the Vizag Test have a pretty special connection. The last time two of India’s young batters under 25 years of age scored centuries in the same Test was way back in 1996 when Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly achieved the same accolade. Tendulkar and Ganguly scored 177 and 136 respectively, also against England at Nottingham. It was Ganguly’s only second Test, having made his debut in the previous game at Lord’s, where he scored a famous century. Like the former India captain, Jaiswal too scored a century on debut last year against West Indies.
As it turned out, Tendulkar and Ganguly did go on to rule cricket till the end of their career. They still hold the record for most runs by an opening pair in ODIs with 6609 from 136 innings. Even in Tests, Ganguly and Tendulkar have scored 4173 runs in 71 matches at an average of 61.36.
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