"Yashasvi is a great player to watch": Stokes heap praises on Jaiswal after his second double century

Ben Stokes. Pic/AFP

Ben Stokes could not help but applaud Yashasvi Jaiswal scoring his second successive Test double century on Sunday. Soon after picking up a single off Joe Root to reach his 200th run, Stokes shook hands with the Indian left-handed opener and clapped all the way till reaching his position on the field at mid-off.

Jaiswal's unbeaten 214 followed his 209 in the second Test in Visakhapatnam, both resulting in comfortable wins for India, but current 434-run victory being India's biggest margin by runs.

Also Read: IND vs ENG 3rd Test: Jaiswal's double ton helps India to register their biggest test win in Rajkot

The England captain said on Sunday at the end of the match that he was reminded of Rishabh Pant the way Jaiswal went about attacking the English bowlers. Stokes said: "If I said I didn't think he [Jaiswal] was any good, it'd be a rogue thing [laughs]. Geez, he's a great player to watch. I enjoy watching good players, even if it's against me. The periods today [Sunday] reminded me of watching Rishabh Pant. Pant is someone I love watching play. Early on, he took his time to get in, he struggled, but he sensed his opportunity to go after us and he did. He has had a fantastic start to his career, playing another unbelievable innings against us here."

Stokes is already thinking of stopping Jaiswal in the next two Tests of the series. "We need to get him out in the next four innings. Hopefully, the double hundred theme doesn't continue. He's a great player and it was a great innings to watch. Very special."

India captain Rohit Sharma preferred to speak less about the Jaiswal, 22, who has three centuries in his seven-Test career. All three of them are above 150 - only six others have converted their first three Test centuries into 150-plus scores, and that list includes Javed Miandad, Andrew Jones, Brian Lara, Mahela Jayawardene, Matthew Sinclair and Graeme Smith.

Sharma said he would not say much about Jaiswal. "I will not talk about Jaiswal. Everyone is talking about him. Let him play. He is good for us. He is in good form. I'm not going to say much more than that. This is enough for now," Sharma told the media after giving India a 2-1 edge in the series. Jaiswal has aggregated 545 runs in this series so far for an average of 109. "I'm just trying to make it big whenever I'm set. In Test cricket, you never know, I try to make sure I play as long as I can when I'm set. It was pretty difficult, initially I was not getting runs, so I had to play the session and the bowler. Then, when I got set I could score the runs," he said at the presentation.