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 he second test at Vizag.
The 22-year-old 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 .
Former Indian opener and legend Sunil Gavaskar has huge praise for this upcoming talent and expresses his views on the same regarding Yashaswi Jaiswal’s bright future to become one of India’s greats.
Yashasvi Jaiswal showed he is a quick learner- Sunil Gavaskar
Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar has lauded Yashaswi Jaiswal for his double century in the second Test against England in Vizag. That came as the hosts won the game by 106 runs to level the five-match Test series 1-1. The 74-year-old labeled Jaiswal a ‘quick learner’ following his success in the second Test after he had thrown it away in the 80s during the first in Hyderabad.
Gavaskar further pointed out the importance of Jaiswal’s innings since no other batter scored 35 in the first innings, but the hosts put on 396 before taking a 143-run lead.
Jaiswal smashed 209 runs off 290 balls in an innings laced with seven sixes and 19 boundaries. Shubman Gill was the second-highest run-scorer with 34 in the same innings. A total of five batters got starts, scoring in the 30s and 20s, but failed to play a big knock.
Sunil Gavaskar wrote in his recent Mid-Day column:
“Yashasvi Jaiswal showed he is a quick learner by making sure he didn’t miss out on a hundred as he did in the first Test match by scoring a magnificent double century in the second Test.”
He continued:
“India certainly needed someone to hold the innings together with a big century as once again most of the other batters got going like they did in the first Test and then gifted their wickets away.”
Sunil Gavaskar points out Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shubman Gill as the only positives of Indian batting from 2nd test
Sunil Gavaskar hinted that T20 cricket is the primary reason behind the failures of Indian players, including India captain Rohit Sharma and Shreyas Iyer among others.
The cricketer-turned-commentator wants the players to stick to conventional cricket to score big in Test matches. He wrote in the same column as above:
“With the advent of T20 cricket and the need there to play unexpected shots, the temperament of the batters can sometimes be badly affected. The thinking that they can play an unorthodox shot and get away with it regularly can and does get them out,”
Rohit and Iyer, in particular, will now be looking to make amends in the third Test at the Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Rajkot, which starts on February 15. On the other hand Yashasvi Jaiswal just as his name stands “Yashasvi” means successful would love to continue his form in the test series in the third test as well and make India win the test series versus England.