 "Yashasvi Jaiswal remained 90 not out on Day 2 of the first Test between Australia and India n Perth. AP")
India opener Yashasvi Jaiswal had an extra reason to celebrate on Saturday as he broke former New Zealand batter Brendon McCullum’s record of most sixes in a calendar year in Tests. McCullum had hit 33 sixes in Tests in 2014, and a decade later, the 22-year-old Jaiswal, who scored his maiden fifty on Australian soil, bettered the former Kiwi captain’s record by one six, amassing 34 maximums in the longest format this year.
Jaiswal achieved the feat on Day two of the first Test between Australia and India in Perth on Saturday. He has hit seven fours and two sixes in the second innings so far.
IND vs AUS Day 2 Major Highlights | Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul’s fifty, Jasprit Bumrah’s five-for and more
India had been dismissed for 150 in the first innings of the Test on Friday after opting to bat. Stand-in skipper Jasprit Bumrah’s five-wicket haul led the visitors’ comeback with the ball , seeing off the hosts for 104 in their first innings reply. At stumps on Day 2, India were 172/0 in the second innings, having got a lead of 218 runs. Jaiswal was unbeaten on 90 whereas his opening partner KL Rahul was not out on 62.
Since making his Test debut against West Indies in 2023, Jaiswal has slammed three centuries and eight fifties in the longest format. He has scored 1407 runs from 26 innings and even scored an unbeaten 214 during the second innings of the third Test against England in Rajkot earlier this year . Overall, Jaiswal has hammered 37 sixes in Tests.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsList of players with most Test sixes in a calendar year:
Yashasvi Jaiswal (India): 34 sixes in 2024 so far
Brendon McCullum (New Zealand): 33 sixes in 2014
Ben Stokes (England): 26 sixes in 2022
Adam Gilchrist (Australia): 22 sixes in 2005
Virender Sehwag (India): 22 sixes in 2008
Andrew Flintoff (England): 21 sixes in 2004
The first Test between Australia and India in Perth will be followed by four more Tests in the five-match Test series. The series is part of the 2023-25 World Test Championship (WTC) cycle, with both teams vying for a spot in next year’s final at Lord’s.