India v England: Yashasvi Jaiswal’s 'superb innings' hides India's 'fragile' batting line-up - Alastair Cook

Alastair Cook lauded Yashasvi Jaiswal for a “superb innings” on the opening day of the second Test against England, which he said hid India’s “fragile” battling line-up.

The 22-year-old produced an unbeaten knock of 179 for only his second-career century as the hosts closed on 336-6 in the opening day’s play.

“He has been absolutely outstanding,” Cook told TNT Sports. “170-odd not out, the rest of the Indian team were 158-6 on a pretty good day.

“If you take him out of it, not that you should or you could take him out of the side, actually the Indian fragile batting line-up is still there. It’s just been hidden by a quite superb innings.

“When his side really needed it, he has delivered an innings of a guy that looks young, but bats with a maturity and skill of more than a 22-year-old.”

Despite Jaiswal’s excellence at the crease and a useful opening session, Cook feels India did not take advantage of the perfect batting conditions in Visakhapatnam.

England snatched a couple of late wickets as Axar Patel was caught by Rehan Ahmed for Shoaib Bashir’s second wicket of the day, before the debutant caught Srikar Bharat in an impressive display.

“At this stage [during the afternoon session] India were in a really strong position,” Cook told TNT Sports.

“170-2 and the danger of a massive score on a flat wicket was looming for England. India batted with great control today and at 225-3 were ahead of the game.”

Assessing their overall performance, Cook added: “I think India will be disappointed that they’ve missed an opportunity.

“They still might get 500, Ravi Shastri said this was a 500 wicket in the first innings to set the game up. If they do, Jaiswal will be getting 250 tomorrow which is the threat for England.

“It’s lots of starts and not enough quality in the execution of shots which caused their downfall.”

Jaiswal stole the headlines, and rightfully so, but England had their own bright spark in the form of debutant Bashir.

The 20-year-old took the first wicket of the day to dismiss India captain Rohit Sharma on his debut, before sealing the penultimate wicket to see off Patel.

Steven Finn was full of praise for Bashir for what was a “remarkable” fist appearance.

“A huge moment. You always remember your first test match wicket and he's picked up an absolute ripper of a first wicket getting the captain,” Finn said on TNT Sports.

“I was just so impressed with his attitude, his application, the simplicity of his technique. You always wonder how someone is going to react when they go up to test level and deal with the emotions of it.

“He’s got through 28 overs and taken two for 100, and two very important wickets for his team. Everything he did today impressed me, I can only remember one bad ball that he bowled which is remarkable.”

The former England Test captain Cook added: “I used to love it when guys made their debut because sometimes you play a few games and you can forget what it means to play for England.

“You shouldn’t do, but you’re travelling around and are on long tours. Just seeing his, almost disbelief, that he’s just played for England.

“I think it was this time last year he was playing a warm-up game for Somerset vs Essex, bowling at a very old cricketer at the other end.

“I don’t think he would have thought that he’d be then taking the Indian Test captain’s wicket only 12 months later. Credit to him.”

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