India vs England 2016: How the debutants fared

#2 Jayant Yadav

Jayant Yadav excelled in the series with both bat and ball

Picked up as an off-spinner, Jayant Yadav impressed with bat and ball. He bowled exceedingly well only to outclass his primary role with some exquisite batsmanship. He has a vicious stock delivery which is a handful on sub-continent tracks.

He gave a good account of himself as a lower order batsman, and started his Test career with a couple of 20s and a solitary 50, and added to the depth of the Indian batting-line up. The big innings came at the Wankhede where he carted the English bowlers and raced to his maiden Test ton. Astonishingly enough, in the first session of Day four, he outscored Virat Kohli - an achievement in itself.

A top-order batsman would be proud of the shots dished out by Jayant during his mammoth stand with Kohli. The innings showed Yadav’s ability to switch gears. With the England bowlers’ tails up, Jayant curbed his natural instincts and started accelerating just when the heads of the Englishmen started dropping.

It’s pretty imperative to say that he has cemented his place in the Test team in home conditions. Though too early to say it, it won’t be surprising if Jayant is installed into the team as a specialist batsman. At the age of 26, the learning curve is still at a rudimentary level, which’s foreseen to get better by the day.