Border-Gavaskar Trophy: Lara, Watson expect Jaiswal to fire in Australia

When India tours Australia next month for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, Yashasvi Jaiswal will be the centre of attention. With a sensational start to his Test career, the young batter has amassed 929 runs in eight Tests this year, at an average of 80.64, and the expectations will be high when he dons the whites on his maiden tour Down Under.

“It’s great to see them go from strength to strength,” said former West Indies captain Brian Lara. Having followed Jaiswal’s journey closely during the Indian Premier League – as a coach and a commentator – Lara believes that if he can play to his strength, the young batter can fare well in the tricky Australian conditions.

“I think he’s got the ability to play in any conditions. I saw him in the Caribbean last year (when he made his debut). Obviously the pitches in Australia are slightly different, but if you take that sort of strength that you have, you’re going to play good cricket in any conditions. So, I expect to see him do well,” Lara said during the launch of the International Masters League on Tuesday.

The Mumbai-based batter is the third-highest run-getter this year only after Joe Root and Kamindu Mendis. And, in the recently-concluded Test series against Bangladesh, he was a standout batter – with three fifty-plus scores in four innings. In the second Test in Kanpur, he hammered a 51-ball-72 in the first innings and followed it up with 51 off 45 balls in the second as India bulldozed the opponent despite rain abandoning almost three days of play.

Lara, who considers Jaiswal and Abhishek Sharma as his favourite left-hand batters, believes that to succeed in any conditions, mindset is the key. “The adjustment is your ability upstairs (mentally), to back your talent in whatever conditions,” the West Indies legend said, indicating that with the IPL, the mindset of the Indian players has changed as they rub shoulders with some of the big names from international cricket.

“I don’t think there’s much that he has to do technically. It’s all about the mental thing – travelling away from home, and playing against Australia on their shores is a different beast, but I believe that the Indian team that I’ve seen going to Australia over the last couple of occasions are very capable of winning,” he added.

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Even former Australian international Shane Watson echoed a similar sentiment. “Top-order batters like Jaiswal have scored runs very quickly, but he hasn’t made a mistake. He hasn’t really given the opposition a chance to be able to get him out. If those types of batters do come out to Australia and play aggressively and put the pressure on the Aussie bowlers, then they can still have the same effect and they keep the game moving as well,” Watson said.

“With the calibre of batters that India have got and the skill they’ve got, there’s no reason why they can’t combine that – putting pressure on the bowlers, scoring quickly but also not making mistakes, which we’ve seen in those Indian batters in particular Jaiswal and (Rishabh) Pant…”

India begins its five-match series in Perth from November 22.