Legendary India batter Sachin Tendulkar hailed the contributions of Yashasvi Jaiswal and Sarfaraz Khan following their heroics in Rajkot, saying the two batters turned out to be ‘double trouble’ for England.
Jaiswal and Sarfaraz formed an unbeaten 172-run partnership to take India to 430 for 4, prompting skipper Rohit Sharma to declare, setting a mammoth 557-run target for England to chase in Rajkot. In fact, Rohit became the first opposition captain to declare against England in the ‘Bazball’ era.
Following India’s declaration, Tendulkar took to social media platform ‘X’, saying the Jaiswal and Sarfaraz proved to be double trouble for England in Rajkot.
“Double hundred. Double fifty. This duo of Yashasvi & Sarfaraz has been double trouble for England. I couldn’t watch them play live, but was very pleased to hear about their knocks. Keep it up,” Tendulkar posted on ‘X’.
Jaiswal scored a brilliant double century on Day 4, becoming just the third Indian batter to smash back-to-back double hundred in Test cricket, following in the footsteps of Virat Kohli and Vinod Kambli. Meanwhile, Sarfaraz became just the fourth Indian to score twin half-centuries on Test debut, emulating the legendary Sunil Gavaskar, Dilawar Hussain and Shreyas Iyer.
Jaiswal scored an unbeaten 216 off 296 balls, smashing 16 boundaries and 12 sixes to take his series total to 545 runs in six innings. With this knock, Jaiswal also went level with former Pakistan captain Wasim Akram’s long-standing record of most sixes hit in a Test innings.
IND vs ENG, 3rd Test Day 4: Live updates
Meanwhile, Sarfaraz remained unbeaten on 68 runs off 72 deliveries, hitting six boundaries and two maximums on Day 4 to complement his 66-ball 62 from the first innings.
Shubman Gill, who scored a century in the second Test in Vizag, seemed to settle in at the number 3 spot as he scored 91 runs off 151 balls on Day 4, falling agonisingly short of his fourth Test hunded following a terrible mix-up with night watchman Kuldeep Yadav.
At the time of writing, England had lost seven wickets while chasing 557 runs in Rajkot, edging closer to a massive defeat in the third Test of their five-match series against India.
India will be looking to keep their immaculate home Test record intact, having not lost a Test series at home since 2011/12.
