The greatest of cricketers get nervous in the 90s. The fear of getting out when you are close to achieving a big milestone is common. But when you are Yashasvi Jaiswal, who has overcome every possible fear in life, how can you be afraid of anything is now the question for all the experts around the world post his emphatic 209 in the second test at Vizag.
The 22-year-old Yashaswi Jaiswal was batting on 94 in the second Test against England on Friday when he walked down the track and lifted the ball over the long-on fence to bring up his century. It was Yashasvi Jaiswal’s second Test hundred after he started his career with a magnificent 171 against the West Indies on his debut last year.
The opening batter kissed the helmet and raised his arms multiple times in celebration on the first day of the ongoing Test match in Vizag—perhaps thanking the sky that was his only ‘rooftop’ when he had no place to stay at the age of 10.
Yashasvi Jaiswal the new prodigy in Indian cricket team.
Yashasvi Jaiswal was only 10 when he moved to Mumbai in pursuit of playing cricket. But the young boy had to struggle a lot to chase his dreams in the big city. Initially, when he had nowhere to go, a dairy owner provided him with a rooftop, but with a condition—the boy had to help him out at the shop. However, since Jaiswal was mostly playing cricket and couldn’t contribute much, the shopkeeper threw him out.
He was on the streets again—with a bat and a bag in his hands. He was left with no option but to move into one of the tents at Azad Maidan, a local ground in Mumbai. He lived alongside the groundsman and sold pani puri in his spare time to earn his livelihood. “We told him to come back, but he said that he would return to the village only when he becomes a player… he was happy to stay in the tent,” says his mother.
The left-handed batter’s first step towards success was when he smashed an astonishing 319 runs and took 13 wickets in a multi-day match of Haris Shield, one of the top school-level tournaments in Mumbai. He hasn’t looked back since. He scored tones of runs at the school level and then for the Mumbai U-16 and U-19 teams. This led to his selection in the Indian U-19 team in 2018.
During his first stint with the national team, the elegant batter emerged as the highest run-getter and steered India to the title in the 2018 U-19 Asia Cup. Jaiswal’s hunger for runs was unreal. He looked unstoppable, topping the batting charts in almost every tournament. The southpaw finished as the highest scorer in the ICC U-19 World Cup 2020 as well.
By now, he had made a name for himself in domestic cricket, pilling huge runs for Mumbai in both the Ranji Trophy—the premier domestic tournament—and white ball events. On the back of these performances, he was picked by Rajasthan Royals for Rs2.4 crore in 2020 in the Indian Premier League (IPL) auction.
For someone who had lived in tents, this kind of money was crazy, but Jaiswal had come a long way in life by then. Fame and money hardly mattered to him, although he was extremely young. Jaiswal had walked through the hardest paths and all that he wanted was to play cricket at the highest level.
Yashasvi Jaiswal a journey from IPL to professional batter for Indian National team.
“Money doesn’t matter to me at all. It was just important that I got a chance to play in the IPL. Money is a by-product of your success. If you do well in any field, you will get some reward, but to get good reward, you need to keep working hard and follow the right processes,” Yashasvi Jaiswal told The Times of India (TOI) after the IPL 2020 auction.
He struggled a bit early on in the IPL, but he kept his spirit intact. He worked on his basics and continuously improved his game. IPL-2023 was the turning point for him. With 625 runs in 14 matches, he won the Emerging Player of the Season Award. Jaiswal didn’t just score those runs but also scored them at a staggering rate, including a record 13-ball fifty. He went after the bowlers from ball one, which made him the talk of the cricketing fraternity.
His consistent performances and years of hard work bore fruit when he earned his Test cap in July 2023 against the West Indies. Jaiswal’s hunger for runs was different. He didn’t settle for less. His introduction to international cricket was glorious—he made a mammoth 171 in his first match, making him the 17th Indian cricketer to score a century on debut.
He soon made his debut in T20Is as well. In his short international career so far, Jaiswal has already left a lasting impression. He scored a brilliant 80 in the first Test against England last week before his career best 209 in the second test match at Vizag.. The knock earned the youngster praise from all corners, including his idol, Sachin Tendulkar .
His knocks however has raised concerns for former English cricketer David Llyod who has praised the youngster and warning the English team the impeding threat Yashasvi Jaiswal possess to them in the upcoming 3 tests .The Indian batting line-up may not be the most fearsome in the absence of KL Rahul, Virat Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja, but as seen in the 2nd Test at Visakhapatnam, England won’t breathe easy knowing they have Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shubman Gill to counter.
Gill and Jaiswal were India’s standout performers with the bat, one scoring a double century and the other a hundred in respective innings. Jaiswal’s 209 propelled India’s total to close to 400, while Gill’s 104 swelled the lead further to set England a target of 399, and even though India’s batting in the 2nd innings left a lot to desire, it was enough to give them a 106-run win setting the series 1-1 heading to Rajkot.
Hence, it’s a well-established fact that England are going to come hard at Jaiswal and Gill, more to the opener to get an early, big breakthrough. And in order to do so, David Lloyd has suggested that England needle the India opener where he loves to thrive.
Yashasvi Jaiswal is a dasher- David Llyod
Former England cricketer David Lloyd called Indian opener Yashasvi Jaiswal their biggest challenge and wanted the visitors to lure him into false strokes by playing on his ego.
The 22-year-old is the leading run-scorer in the series after two Tests with 321 runs at an average of 80.75. It includes a breathtaking 209 in the first innings of the second Test in Visakhapatnam to set up India’s series-leveling 106-run victory.
In his column for the Daily Mail, Lloyd wrote that England should persist with an off-spinner to Jaiswal and tempt the left-handed batter with men in the deep.
“Jaiswal is a dasher all right but he doesn’t have an obvious weakness, so I would be thinking slightly outside the box and rather than bowling the left-arm spinner against him with the new ball, I would be tempted to persevere with the off-spinner, placing temptation in the deep. I would like to see England play on Jaiswal’s ego bit more,” wrote Lloyd.
“Shubman Gill stepped up in the second Test and the Indian batters are all well capable of getting massive scores. The one England have had the most problems with so far is Yashaswi Jaiswal and their challenge therefore is to try to work out a plan to dismiss the series’ leading run scorer,” he added
Jaiswal has made an impressive start to his Test career, averaging almost 58 in six games, including a magnificent 171 on debut against the West Indies. The southpaw scored a quick-fire 80 off 74 balls in India’s first Test defeat at Hyderabad.
Coming to the third test at Rajkot after 1-1 series status, Yashaswi Jaiswal will need to value his wicket highly, especially given the relative inexperience of India’s middle order without Iyer. Rajat Patidar has only featured in one Test match, while Dhruv Jurel and Sarfaraz Khan are poised to make their debut. On the other hand England would plan to get Yashaswi Jaiswal out early to apply initial pressure on a new look batting line up of home team India.