The second Test between India and England will begin on July 2 at Edgbaston in Birmingham. Indian opener Yashasvi Jaiswal will be aiming to break a record that has stood for nearly 50 years, currently held by Sunil Gavaskar. If he succeeds, he will set a new benchmark in Indian Test cricket.
Jaiswal started the England tour in fine form, becoming the first Indian batter to score a century in the opening match. Although Shubman Gill, KL Rahul, and Rishabh Pant also scored centuries, India ended up losing the match. To stage a strong comeback in the second Test, India will once again depend on solid performances from their top-order batters, especially Jaiswal.
So far in his Test career, Jaiswal has scored 1,903 runs in 20 matches at an average of 52.86. He is just 97 runs away from reaching the 2,000-run milestone. If he scores those runs at Edgbaston, he will become the fastest Indian to reach 2,000 Test runs in terms of matches played, breaking Sunil Gavaskar’s record of achieving it in 23 Tests.
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Gavaskar had a remarkable start to his career, reaching 2,000 runs in just 23 matches. If Jaiswal doesn’t manage to reach the milestone in this game, he will still have another chance in the series to do so.
Other Indian batters who came close to this mark include Rahul Dravid and Virender Sehwag, both of whom took 25 matches to reach 2,000 Test runs.
In terms of innings, Dravid and Sehwag reached the milestone in 40 innings, while Gavaskar took 44. Jaiswal has played 38 innings so far, which means if he scores 97 runs in the first innings of the second Test, he will also become the fastest Indian to reach 2,000 runs in terms of innings played.