Kumar Sangakkara heaps huge praise on Yashasvi Jaiswal

Rajasthan Royals Director of Cricket and esteemed commentator Kumar Sangakkara heaped huge praise on Yashasvi Jaiswal amidst the ongoing England-India Tests. Yashasvi Jaiswal scored a brilliant hundred in the first innings of the first Test and followed that up with a stroke-filled 87 in the Birmingham Test match. 

Speaking on the southpaw to Michael Atherton in a mid-innings show on Sky Cricket, Kumar Sangakkara said, 

”The way to do it is look at these numbers, and they're incredible. Any young cricketer with this as their foundation, you know that he's incredibly good, not just technically, but temperament-wise. And he has an appetite that separates him from other young cricketers of the same age.”

“He's got a debut 100. He's the third youngest, I think, after Vinod Kambli and Sir Don Bradman to have two double 100s to his name. He's hungry to score runs in away Test conditions,” added Sangakkara. 

The stylish Sri Lankan left-hander also feels that Jaiswal’s ceiling would be much higher than this, claiming that he can get much better than this and achieve even greater things. Speaking from personal experience of coaching Jaiswal at Rajasthan Royals, Sangakkara believes that Jaiswal’s initial struggle and journey will help him stay grounded. 

“I saw him as a young kid at Rajasthan Royals. And having got to know him, I think he's just going to get better. I think he's got the resilience to withstand a lot of the challenges that come his way in international cricket.

“Take the rise and then the bumps and the falls along the way in his stride, and he's extremely driven and motivated. So he's going to be even better,” concluded Sangakkara. 

Yashasvi Jaiswal has already scored centuries away to West Indies, Australia, and England, while also scoring twin double hundreds in India against England. He’s set the marker high for himself in Test cricket, having achieved so much so quickly while displaying a maturity much beyond his years. While this is just the start, Jaiswal is expected to only get better with more experience and games under his belt.