Never has an Indian left-handed Test opener travelled to England as the team’s top batter, rarely has India been blessed like Australia with dominant southpaws. Yashasvi Jaiswal carries big hopes on his young shoulders. Despite a cold start to the summer, Team India will expect him to thrive and shine. In the unofficial Test, Yashasvi Jaiswal stood his ground even after being done in by a nip backer from Chris Woakes. However, it cannot be said that the Mumbai batter has  passed his English test with flying colours.

Jaiswal lbw 17 to Woakes … not sure he necessarily agreed with the decision pic.twitter.com/b3w7dHP5uA

— Ali Martin (@Cricket_Ali) June 6, 2025

Jaiswal scored 24 and 64 in Canterbury, followed by 17 and 5 in the 2nd unofficial Test at Northampton, but the experts are betting heavily on this 23-year-old to master the conditions and shine as the brightest star on this tour.

England has been an opposition that helped establish Jaiswal’s reputation as a cultured Test batter. He had 712 runs in nine innings at an average of 89 in the last Indi vs England series in 2023-24. The highlight of course were the double tons (209 in Visakhapatnam and 214* in Rajkot).

His previous exploits against England made him one of the biggest stars in the last World Test Championship cycle. Former Australian Captain Ricky Ponting has placed Jaiswal right on the top of his list of the men to look out for this English summer. The other men to feature on that list are KL Rahul, Sai Sudarshan, Captain Gill and Karun Nair.

Despite a shaky start on his maiden Test Tour to England, Yashasvi seems to be in a zone to make a big impact. Rarely has India had exceptional left-handed openers. Jaiswal may just be that star that Team India has searched for all these years

 

He is already third on the list of highest run scorers among all Indian left-handed Test openers. Gautam Gambhir is on top, followed by Shikhar Dhawan. Only two left-handed Test openers in Indian Test history have crossed 2000 runs and Jaiswal is just 23, not even two years into Test cricket.

Indian left-handers as Test openers 

Gautam Gambhir: 4119 ( 101 Test Innings)

Shikar Dhawan: 2315 (58 Test innings))

Yashasvi Jaiswal: 1798 (36 Test innings)

Australia has had a phenomenal run with southpaw openers. They had 10 of them, with 5 crossing 5000 runs. And the list has the likes of David Warner, Matthew Hayden, Mark Taylor, Justin Langer.

 

Despite a cold and nervy start to the English summer, Jasiwal was far more settled than he was on the opening day of the game. His reaction was better even when he could not gauge the paths of the ball. The leaves and the blocks on Sunday did tell a story. He starts as India’s top batter, 4th on ICC’s Test rankings and only one of the two in top 10. 

Jaiswal in Test cricket

Matches: 19

Innings: 36

Runs: 1798

Avg: 52.88

50s:  10

100s:  4

Highest Score: 207

Jaiswal knows good marks in the English test this summer will go a long way in establishing him as India’s top star for the next decade.