Jayant Yadav’s recent all-round performances on India A’s tour to Australia saw him rewarded with a call-up to the Indian team for the third Test against New Zealand last month.
The Haryana off-spinner sat on the bench for that Test, just like he was to do for the first four matches of the ODI series that followed against the Blackcaps. Jayant was finally given his ODI debut in the fifth game at Visakhapatnam and did reasonably well, picking up figures of 1-8 from four overs with the ball.
After having to sit out of the first Test at Rajkot, he was handed his Test cap at the same venue where he had made his ODI debut on Thursday with the Indian think-tank deciding to play him in place of leg-spinner Amit Mishra.
Jayant has shown his all-round skills so far; scoring 32 coming into bat at number nine, picking up the wicket of Moeen Ali, and brilliantly executing the run-out of Haseeb Hameed, a dismissal that led to a middle-order collapse from England.
Following his good showing in all three aspects of the game, the 26-year-old has earned praise from Indian batting legend Sunil Gavaskar.
“Jayant Yadav batted sensibly. His partnership with Ashwin was a major factor in taking India past 400. In bowling, Yadav has a nice easy action, nice follow through. He also took a wicket, and contributed in the field too. If anybody does that in the first Test, he certainly belongs to the highest level,” said Gavaskar in an interview with NDTV.
On the Hameed run-out, Gavaskar added: “Outstanding work all around. Ground fielding has improves by leaps and bounds in recent times. Run-out of Hameed was a turning point. England were doing good till then.”
Jayant Yadav
— Mohandas Menon (@mohanstatsman) November 18, 2016
Maiden wicket...
in ODIs: 12th ball
in Tests: 8th ball#IndvEng
