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There's something about the way Yashasvi Jaiswal bats that it endears you to him and his style of play. He's a great act to follow, a classy batter and someone who is as unafraid of facing nearly any type of bowling as he is confident being a dasher with the willow in hand.
The blazing left-hander from India, despite being the beholder of a fairly young career, has already struck his fifth Test century, and has also, lest it is undermined, come to own a brand new Test match record.
That of scoring a century in three different countries in his very first or maiden appearance in those very nations.
So how good a result or stat is that? Guess it's importance to Team India!
His 171 against the West Indies, a knock to savour for the ages, came a couple of summers ago but was then his maiden Test century and also his first-ever in the Caribbean region. He top scored in a team comprising the great Virat Kohli, Windsor Park back them witnessing sheer magic.
Next up, he met Australia in Australia and his bat plundered a magnificent century in Perth of all grounds, one of the most competitive pitches to score a three-figure-mark. But in Australia, Jaiswal's 161 that came off 297 deliveries proved another aspect of the rising batting talent of India.
It showed one and all that Jaiswal, despite being the beholder of a fairly young career and one that is still developing, as we speak, seemed to be at complete ease when it came to facing Mitch Starc and Nathan Lyon. Forget not that there was a certain Pat Cummins too in there.
This time around, he stepped foot in England, against whom he's scored twin double hundreds in India, for a very first time (having never previously played Test cricket in England). But what was the result?
Jaiswal dominated and eased his way to a classy century, a first in England as also a maiden Test century at Headingley, where not always have his contemporaries or those before him made dollops of runs.
The 101 that he scored off just 158 deliveries in thorough English conditions marked his place as one of the very best in the game. There was a bit of late movement and it wasn't too easy to get going. Rahul watched the ball and after a patient wait made 42.
Yashasvi Jaiswal at his end, was fluent and grafting for runs. He's the exceptional craftsman who makes batting more appealing even on days where you think there's something in it for the bowlers, no?
The young top order batter from India loves Test match cricket, which is an excellent piece of development at a time where in the love for making a quick buck or two, many young minds and capable talents in the game drift away and prefer franchise leagues over the rigours required to excel in Test match cricket.
But not Jaiswal; someone who takes the batting assignments of his Rajasthan Royals as seriously as his Test challenges for Team India, to which he now belongs as importantly and emphatically as the presence of oxygen in the environs.
