Yashasvi Jaiswal was a man on a mission on Day 2 of the first Test between India and Australia in Perth on Saturday, November 23 as he came back after a failure in the first innings. Jaiswal was out caught behind driving in the first innings but with the pitch getting flattened out, he made a few tiny technical adjustments, playing late with soft hands and close to the body as Indian openers kept Australia at bay. Having taken a 46-run lead in the first innings, India dictated the terms with the bat in the second innings with the lead extending to over 200.
Jaiswal had a key role to play in the batting fightback alongside KL Rahul, who too put his head down and focussed on spending time in the middle rather than scoring runs. It was almost a 180 degree turnaround from the pitch perspective as a day after the batters weren't able to play a single ball, Jaiswal and Rahul frustrated the Australians to the hilt as the stumps approached, the bowlers and the fielders were on their haunches.
Jaiswal after reaching his probably most cautious fifty decided to have some fun and didn't back down either with bat or with words even against the likes of Mitchell Starc. Starc, who had a rather fun duel with his former KKR teammate Harshit Rana when he was batting, was involved in a little serious battle with Jaiswal.
Jaiswal smashed a six off Starc and the pacer was getting a little iffy. The duel was getting heated one ball at a time. After defending a delivery from Starc, the bowler seemed to have said something to Jaiswal. The left-hander replied asking, "What?" before taking a dig at the left-arm pacer saying, "It's too slow."
Watch the video here:
By the end of the day's play, Jaiswal was unbeaten on 90 and Rahul on 62 as India extended their lead to 218.
