"Had mildly reprimanded him in the hotel elevator" - Sunil Gavaskar recalls pushing Yashasvi Jaiswal to convert starts into bigger scores

Indian batting legend Sunil Gavaskar recalled his advice to young sensation Yashasvi Jaiswal during the first Test of the South African tour for throwing away his start in the previous game against the West Indies.

Jaiswal began his Test career with a bang, scoring a sensational 171 in the first Test against the West Indies. However, the southpaw got off to solid starts in both innings of the following Test at Trinidad before being dismissed for 57 and 38.

While praising Jaiswal for his incredible performances in the recently concluded home series against England, Gavaskar recalled reprimanding the youngster for not capitalizing on his starts in the West Indies series.

"It felt very nice to see Yashasvi getting all those runs and the manner in which he dominated the attack. I had mildly reprimanded him in the hotel elevator on Day 1 of the first Test in South Africa for throwing away his wicket in Trinidad (previous Test) after a good 50-plus score and told him never to do the bowlers any favour. Thankfully, he listened to me and got two big doubles in this series," Gavaskar told Hindustan Times.

Yet, Gavaskar cheekily mentioned Jaiswal not converting his 50s a couple of times in the England series.

"He got three other half centuries and forgot what I had told him there. But hey, who listens to anyone when one is in his 20s. I didn't either. Hopefully, he will go on to bigger things and never forgets that he is what he is because of Indian cricket," added Gavaskar.

Apart from the two double tons, Jaiswal crossed the 50-run mark three times but failed to convert them into three-figure scores. Nevertheless, he finished as the leading run-scorer in the series with 712 runs in five Tests at an average of 89.

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"When a player gets runs in a series then he is very good or very lucky" - Sunil Gavaskar

Sunil Gavaskar felt scoring over 700 runs in a Test series reflects the player's incredible skills but also involves a bit of luck.

In the recent England series, Jaiswal joined Gavaskar as the only Indian cricketer to breach the 700-run mark.

"When a player gets runs in a series then he is very good or very lucky. In my case it was the latter as no less a cricketer than Garry Sobers gave me lives in my first half-century and then my first Test century," said Gavaskar.

Gavaskar achieved the extraordinary feat twice, scoring 774 and 732 runs against the formidable West Indian unit in the 1970/71 and 1978/79 series, respectively.

Meanwhile, Jaiswal, 22, became the youngest Indian batter to score 1000 Test runs during the final Test against England.