Yashasvi Jaiswal scored a mature half-century on the opening day to lay a strong foundation for the Indian cricket team in the second match of the 2025 Test series against England at Edgbaston, Birmingham, on Wednesday.

Having scored a hundred in the first Test albeit in a losing cause, the 23-year-old Jaiswal, who represents Rajasthan Royals in the IPL, scored a swift 87 off 107 balls in Birmingham, smashing 13 fours along the way.

The southpaw’s 87 is also the highest score by an Indian opener in Test matches at Edgbaston, taking him past Sudhir Naik, who scored 77 against England in July 1974.

Playing in his 21st match and 39th innings, the left-hander is now just 10 runs shy of scoring 2000 runs in Tests.

If he reaches the milestone in the next innings, he will equal the record for the fastest Indian player to score 2000 Test runs.

Current Rajasthan Royals head coach Rahul Dravid and Indian cricket legend Virender Sehwag, both of whom reached the milestone in 25 games and 40 innings, own the record.

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Opening the batting with KL Rahul after England won the toss and decided to field first, Yashasvi Jaiswal made a cautious start to his innings as he looked to see off England’s opening bowlers in the first hour of the session.

However, once he got his eye in, the flamboyant opener began to accelerate and showcased his wide range of strokes as he stitched together an 80-run partnership with Karun Nair for the second wicket.

Yashasvi Jaiswal brought up his fifty in the 22nd over after smashing three successive fours off Josh Tongue.

He also put on a 66-run partnership with skipper Shubman Gill before falling to Ben Stokes after lunch, edging behind to wicketkeeper Jaime Smith.

In the previous Test, Jaiswal became the fifth Indian to score a century in his first Test innings in England after making 101 off 144 balls. He joined an elite list that included Murali Vijay, Vijay Manjrekar, Sourav Ganguly and Sandeep Patil.

His ton in the last Test saw him create the unique feat of scoring centuries in his debut Tests in three different countries - the West Indies, Australia and England.

Jaiswal had also scored two double centuries during the home series against England last year.

The southpaw is coming off a fantastic 2024 season, which saw him score 1478 runs - the highest by any Indian last year and the most Test runs by an Indian opener ever.

He also hit 36 sixes in Tests in 2024, which was a new world record for a calendar year.

Jaiswal ended the year as the second-highest scorer in Tests behind a member of the original Fab Four in England’s Joe Root, who scored 1556 runs from 17 matches.

The left-handed opener was also part of the Indian squad which won the T20 World Cup 2024 and was RR’s highest scorer in IPL 2025.