LONDON, Aug 3: Yashasvi Jaiswal wanted to be more consistent on his first tour of England but drew immense satisfaction from his second-innings ton on a "spicy" pitch at The Oval to help set a massive 374-run target in the fifth Test.
Jaiswal ended the series with 411 runs at an average of 41.10 including two centuries and as many fifties.
In the initial phase, he was peppered with plenty of short balls into the rib cage, before Jaiswal had his fair share of struggle against Jofra Archer at Lord's.
The Indian opener's returns in 10 innings - scores of 101, 4, 87, 28, 13, 0, 58, 0, 2, 118 - suggest he was not among the most consistent batters but Jaiswal did leave a lasting impact after a decent run in Australia.
"I think I wanted to do more. I wanted to make my innings bigger than that. So, I could have achieved something else. But it's okay," he told the media on Saturday.
"I was trying very hard for that and I was enjoying it. Whenever I go out there, I think, as long as I can bat, I enjoy batting as well," added Jaiswal, who rode his luck to complete his sixth Test hundred on Saturday.
Jaiswal also got a word of advice from his former captain Rohit Sharma, who was watching the game from the stands at The Oval.
"He told me to hang in there and bat long," said the southpaw.
Talking more about his learnings from the series, Jaiswal said: "It's all about how I fight. Always, the mentality is to go out there and fight it out and enjoy."
"Because in the end, (and) as I tell myself that it's the game and we need to enjoy the game. That is very important. With that, we should have fun.
"I am proud of myself and all my teammates. We want fun. We want some battle in the middle. That is the fun. That's why you play Test cricket," he said. |
