England player Ben Duckett had raised eyebrows after claiming that England should be credited in part for talented India opener Yashasvi Jaiswal’s attacking century on the third day of the Rajkot Test. Duckett also said England’s aggression with the bat in Test cricket has forced their opponents to play differently as well. However, Nasser Hussain has rejected Duckett’s claim and said to introspect and learn how to pace their innings from Yashasvi Jaiswal who smashed a scintillating double-century.
“So the comment on Jaiswal, he’s learned from us. Again, I’m going to touch on that. He’s not learned from you. He’s learned from, as I say, his upbringing and all the hard yards he had to put in growing up, and he’s learnt from IPL,” Hussain told Mike Atherton on Sky Sports Cricket. “If anything, lads have a look at him (Jaiswal) and learn from him. So whatever they’re saying in public and in that dressing room, I hope they’re going back to their room and just a little bit of a self-introspection and going, yeah, I can look at that lad and learn from him. I can improve.”
However, England are facing criticism for not adjusting their approach to suit the challenging Indian conditions after facing a massive defeat within four days of the third Test. Chasing a massive total of 557, England were all out for a mere 122 with India storming to a 434-run win – their biggest ever by run margin as well.
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Yashasvi Jaiswal has scored 545 runs from six innings of the ongoing five-match Test series between India and England. The next best came from England’s Duckett who has made 288 from six innings as well. And, Hussain said Jaiswal’s performance has been the ‘wow moment’ so far as well.
“Jaiswal for me has just been a wow moment,” Hussain said. “He has just been unbelievable. And again, I’ve just talked about how England’s spinners can learn from Indian spinners. I think some of England’s batters can learn from Jaiswal. He is attacking, he is hitting sixes for fun. I sit at home and I watch cricket still as a batter, and think, what shot would I have played? So the moment England spinners get it above the eye line, I pick that up and Jaiswal picks that up and belts it out of the ground. Literally every time I sit home going, always toss that up. Jaiswal belts it out of the ground. I’ve not seen, you’d have to go back to Vinod Kambli or (Navjot) Sidhu when you played on that tour, or Virender Sehwag, some of the great hitters of spin. I think you would put this young lad in.”
“And I said on a previous podcast we’ve done, he’s got that hunger from moving as a twelve-year-old boy and living on Azad Maidan in a tent. He’s got that hunger and discipline, but he’s also got that IPL hitting potential and flair. And that is a dangerous combination as England are finding out – two double-hundreds and big runs. And that’s why England, yeah, play the way you are. But have a look at this lad. He’s playing attacking, but he’s making it count. He’s sitting in. First hour, he didn’t go after England. Second hour, he went after their spinner. So a brilliant performance from him,” he concluded.
