“Had mildly reprimanded him in the hotel elevator” – Sunil Gavaskar recalls pushing Yashasvi Jaiswal to convert starts into bigger scores

Legendary Sunil Gavaskar recalled pushing Yashasvi Jaiswal to convert his starts into bigger scores. Gavaskar said he mildly reprimanded the youngster in the hotel elevator. Jaiswal scored 712 runs in five Test matches against England at an impressive average of 89, including two double centuries.

The left-hander also completed 1000 Test runs during the course of the series and broke multiple records. The youngster has taken Test cricket like fish to water and batted at his absolute best against England.

Meanwhile, Jaiswal scored a stellar knock of 171 on his Test debut against the West Indies but returned with scores of 57 and 38 in the following Test at Trinidad.

“It felt very nice to see Yashasvi getting all those runs and the manner in which he dominated the attack. I had mildly reprimanded him in the hotel elevator on Day 1 of the first Test in South Africa for throwing away his wicket in Trinidad (previous Test) after a good 50-plus score and told him never to do the bowlers any favour. Thankfully, he listened to me and got two big doubles in this series,” Gavaskar told Hindustan Times.

Despite his scintillating performance against England, Gavaskar mentioned that Jaiswal failed to convert three half-centuries in the recently concluded series.

“He got three other half centuries and forgot what I had told him there. But hey, who listens to anyone when one is in his 20s. I didn’t either. Hopefully, he will go on to bigger things and never forgets that he is what he is because of Indian cricket,” added Gavaskar.

Meanwhile, Gavaskar scored 774 runs in his debut series against the West Indies and also breached the 700-run mark on one more occasion, 732 runs against the same opposition. Jaiswal became only the second Indian after Gavaskar to get more than 700 runs in a Test series. Gavaskar admitted he was lucky as he got dropped by Gary Sobers.

“When a player gets runs in a series then he is very good or very lucky. In my case it was the latter as no less a cricketer than Garry Sobers gave me lives in my first half-century and then my first Test century,” said Gavaskar.

Jaiswal will play for Rajasthan Royals in the upcoming IPL.