Galle, August 18: India opener Yashasvi Jaiswal’s latest failure in Galle is not, by itself, a reason for alarm. The 25-year-old was dismissed for a duck in the second innings of the first Test against Sri Lanka, having already made 32 in the first innings after being run out in unusual circumstances.
The bigger concern lies in the pattern surrounding those two innings.
Jaiswal’s last 10 Test scores read: 0, 32, 24, 13, 58, 0, 12, 36, 175, 8.
That is just 358 runs, with the 175 against West Indies accounting for almost half of the total. More significantly, there has been only one fifty in those 10 innings.
For a batter whose biggest strength is his ability to turn starts into match-defining scores, that is the part that deserves attention.
The problem is not that Jaiswal is aggressive
The Mumbaikar’s aggression is not a flaw that India need to eliminate. It is the foundation of his Test batting. For he has built an exceptional record by putting bowlers under pressure before they can settle into their lengths. His ability to attack spin, use his feet and score quickly has made him one of India’s most dangerous opening batters.
The problem emerges when that high-intent approach repeatedly produces 30s instead of hundreds.
The aggressive left-hander’s recent scores contain several examples: 32 against Sri Lanka, 24 against Afghanistan, 36 against West Indies and 58 against South Africa.
The starts are still coming. The conversion has disappeared.
That changes the risk-reward equation
A 30-ball 25 or a 35-ball 30 can be extremely valuable if it forces a bowler away from his preferred plan and eventually becomes a substantial score.
But if the innings consistently ends around that point, the value of the aggression has to be reassessed. Jaiswal does not necessarily need to become more defensive. He may simply need to become more selective about when to accelerate.
That is an important distinction.
The next stage of his development may not be about reducing intent, but about extending the period between taking control and taking risks.
Past performances show he can do it
There is evidence that Jaiswal already possesses the answer.
His 175 against West Indies in Delhi came from 258 balls. That innings contained the same aggression that defines his game, but it was accompanied by prolonged occupation of the crease. That is the version India need to see more often.
He has done it in England and Australia as well with his sensational centuries. The issue is therefore not that Jaiswal has forgotten how to bat long.
It is that he has recently struggled to reach the phase of an innings where his aggression becomes truly damaging.
The 30s are becoming the story
The most revealing aspect of his recent form is not the number of ducks. It is the number of innings in which he has looked capable of making a significant contribution before disappearing.
That is potentially more useful information for Jaiswal and India’s batting coaches. If a batter is repeatedly getting out first ball, the solution can be technical.
If he is repeatedly reaching 20, 30 or 40 before getting out, the solution can be game management. Jaiswal’s recent sequence increasingly looks like the latter.
Asian conditions demand another gear
Subcontinental Test cricket can reward attacking batting, but it also punishes predictable aggression.
Spinners can change their trajectory, pace and angle. Fielders can be pushed back to create tempting gaps. On surfaces offering variable turn or bounce, a batter can find that the shot that was profitable five overs earlier has suddenly become a high-risk option.
Jaiswal’s ability to attack is therefore not enough. The Uttar Pradesh born cricketer has grown up batting on slow and turning tracks, hence adjusting to the conditions isn’t going to be such a big deal. He simply needs to recognise when the conditions are asking him to occupy rather than dominate.
That does not mean abandoning the player he is. It means adding another layer to his game.
Galle should be viewed as a warning, not a verdict
His first-innings run-out was an unfortunate mix-up rather than a technical failure, while his second-innings duck came too early to draw meaningful conclusions about his batting method.
India’s larger concern is what has happened across the innings before Galle.
The sequence of 175, 36, 8, 12, 0, 58, 13, 24, 32, 0 shows a batter who has not been able to sustain the long innings that became such a feature of his early Test career.
That is where the tactical reset comes in. He does not need to become a Cheteshwar Pujara, someone who’s built his career blocking and tiring the opposition out. He needs to become a more complete version of Yashasvi Jaiswal.
The aggression should remain. The intent should remain. The willingness to attack spin should remain. But there needs to be greater awareness of when the innings has moved from “put the opposition under pressure” to “cash in on the pressure already created.”
That could be the difference between another sequence of promising starts and the return of the big Test hundreds that have defined Jaiswal’s young career.
The question is not whether Jaiswal should stop attacking. It is whether he can learn to attack for longer – and, crucially, at the right moments.