India vs West Indies: ‘You belong here’- Rohit Sharma to Yashasvi Jaiswal | Cricket News – Times of India

Young opener Yashasvi Jaiswal had a dream India debut in the first Test against the West Indies and lived up to the talent he has shown consistently in the domestic circuit, which is why, said skipper Rohit Sharma, “he was never panicking” and scored a century in his first international match.
Jaiswal contributed with 171 runs in India’s big win by an innings and 141 runs inside three days at Dominica. Ravichandran Ashwin dismantled the Windies with his off-spin, taking seven wickets, taking his match haul to 12 wickets.
Rohit too scored a century (103) while opening with Jaiswal, as the two stitched an opening stand of 229 runs. Jaiswal, meanwhile, became only the third Indian to score 150 on debut.”He has the talent, he has shown us in the past that he is ready,” said Rohit after the match ended on Friday. “Came and batted sensibly. The temperament was also tested, at no stage he was panicking. The chats we had were to remind him that ‘you belong here. You have done the hard yards, enjoy your time here’.”
India declared their only innings of the match at 421/5, which gave them a lead of 271 runs. The visitors then bowled out the hosts for 130 in the second innings.
“I would like to start by saying it was a great effort with the ball. Getting them out for 150 set the game for us. We knew batting would get tough, it wasn’t easy to score runs. We knew we wanted to bat only once and bat long. Get over 400 runs and then we came out and bowled really well,” he said.

Rohit also praised the efforts of Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, who took five wickets in the match.
“The results speak for themselves. They have been doing it for a while. There isn’t much to tell them, it is about giving them the freedom to express. The experience these guys have on pitches like this is always a luxury. Both Ash (Ashwin) and Jadeja were superb, especially Ashwin for coming out and bowling this way was class.”

The win gave India a winning start in the new World Test Championship cycle.
“Always nice to start well, it is a fresh cycle. We weren’t too worried about the pitch, we wanted to come here and get results. Important to start well. Now it’s about taking that momentum into the second Test. There are a couple of new guys and people who haven’t had much Test cricket, so just about getting them out on the field now.”
(With agency inputs)