Yashasvi Jaiswal has received a ringing endorsement from his captain and opening partner Rohit Sharma who is not one bit surprised by the youngster's meteoric rise and expects him "to do wonders for the team" across formats.
Jaiswal made his international debut in a Test match last year against West Indies where he smashed 171 in his maiden innings. The 22-year-old has already scored 1217 runs in his 11-Test career with seven fifties and three centuries at an average of 64.05. He's converted two of his centuries into double tons and has a highest score of 214 not out.
"The guy has got real talent," Rohit said of Jaiswal. "He has got the game to play in all sorts of conditions. Obviously, very new to international cricket, so very hard to judge right now. But he has got all the ingredients for success at this level.
"What he has shown us in this brief period of time, you can bet on him and expect him to do wonders for the team. He has come through the ranks. He has played a lot of domestic cricket, Under-19 cricket. And obviously, has succeeded as well. That is why he is right now playing for India."
Rohit has seen Jaiswal's rise from close quarters having opened the innings with him in all of his 11 Tests. Since they were paired together, in July 2023, they have added 1082 runs in 20 innings.
Jaiswal has already risen to third position on the Test batting rankings and as things stand is the second-highest run-scorer in the current WTC cycle behind Joe Root. Even in T20Is, Jaiswal has shown immediate consistency, scoring 723 runs in 22 innings with five fifties and a century. He is yet to play an ODI though.
Rohit said that Jaiswal's willingness to learn and adapt makes him stand out.
"He is somebody who wants to learn the game, learn about batsmanship, which is always a nice thing," Rohit said. "When a youngster comes into the team, his mindset is quite critical. And the mindset that he has shown, he always wants to learn, always wants to improve, not happy with what he has achieved which is obviously a great start to a young career.
"So far in his short career, he has shown what he is capable of. I mean, we found a great player. It does obviously bode well for our team as well being a left-hander, being an aggressive batter, it bodes well for the team.
"Hopefully, he can just continue to do what he has done in the last year or so."