Yashasvi Jaiswal
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Career
2019
The journey, in brief
Amit Kumar, Dec 23, 2019 Times of India
From: Amit Kumar, Dec 23, 2019 Times of India
NEW DELHI: 'Chase your dreams, they do come true' – the golden words came from Sachin Tendulkar after he hung up his cricketing boots in 2013. The words seem apt for Mumbai youngster Yashasvi Jaiswal when we talk about his journey. Yashasvi's quintessential rags to riches tale, has been an inspiration for many.
Once a pani puri seller, Yashasvi is now an IPL millionaire. He was one of the hot picks in the recently-concluded 2020 Indian Premier League (IPL) Player Auction, held in Kolkata. The 17-year-old Yashasvi, who is currently in South Africa for India's Under-19 World Cup campaign, was picked by Rajasthan Royals for a hefty sum of Rs. 2.40 crore for the 2020 IPL season.
"I am very happy. It's a big opportunity for me. I will give my best," Yashasvi told Timesofindia.com in an exclusive interview.
Yashasvi earned this well-deserved deal from the inaugural edition's IPL champions due to his determination and on-field onslaughts with the willow.
In the Vijay Hazare Trophy, held in September-October 2019, Yashasvi smashed a blistering 203 off 154 balls, including 12 sixes and 17 boundaries. With this feat, he became the youngest batsman to score a double century in List A cricket. He scored a total of 564 runs in 6 matches (6 innings) at an average of 112.80, with three centuries and a fifty in the season. He also hit 49 fours and 25 sixes in his tournament.
THE STRUGGLE
The youngster from Suriya village in Uttar Pradesh once sold pani puri and lived in tents in Mumbai to make ends meet, but those hurdles didn't stop this wonder kid from chasing his cricketing dreams.
"I was 11 when I came to Mumbai. My father runs a paint shop. The money wasn't enough to make me a cricketer," Yashasvi said.
"I used to watch cricketers play at the Azad Maidan. I used to go every day after selling pani puris. One day I met Pappu sir there. I was requesting him for many days to give me a chance to play. One fine day, he came and said 'tu aaj khelega' (You will play today). He said.. if you perform well today, I will give you a tent to stay in. I was struggling for everything and it was a big opportunity for me to start my journey," the 17-year-old said.
"Thanks to God, I performed well in that match and got the tent from Pappu sir," he said.
"All I wanted to do was play cricket. I just wanted to spend my life on the 22 yards. Cricket is my life," the youngster said.
"I am thankful to Jwala sir (Yashasvi's childhood coach) who supported me a lot in my career. He gave cricket equipment and also asked to stay his place as I didn't have any money and a support. He has done everything for me. He asked my to just focus on my sport," he said.
"My family is very happy now. They are happy to see me grow. I always wanted to make them proud and will always do that," a proud Yashavi told timesofindia.com.
FOLLOWING DRAVID'S MANTRA – 'ONE BALL AT A TIME’
Ahead of the upcoming U-19 World Cup, Yashasvi got the chance to learn about the game under India's batting legend Rahul Dravid's tutelage at the NCA in Bangalore. The youngster had a bag full of tips from Dravid before he departed for South Africa for the mega event.
"One ball at a time – this is the mantra I have learnt from Rahul sir. He always says treat every ball as important.
Whenever I visit NCA, I meet him and tell him where I lack and what problem I am facing. He has solutions for everything. He is a great mentor. Honestly, my game has improved a lot because of his guidance," Yashasvi said.
"He congratulated and hugged me after my call-up," he said.
"I just want to go and perform for my country. I have worked a lot on my fitness and trained well at the NCA. I practiced and trained under Rahul sir and took a lot of tips from him. I am sure we will bring the Cup home," the 17-year-old said.
MEETING TENDULKAR
Yashasvi is a left hander but takes inspiration from batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar. Watching his batting videos closely has helped Yashasvi take his game to a different level and he wants to excel in the art of playing cover and straight drives, the way Tendulkar used to so in his career.
"I admire the god of cricket (Tendulkar). I have met him a number of times. His presence is enough to motivate you. He is an inspiration for me. I have learnt a lot from him," Yashasvi said.
"I asked him once - 'sir... how should I prepare myself ahead of a big game?'. He said 'you should live in the present. Whatever happened in the last match, just leave it behind. Whether you have scored a ton or a duck, just forget and move on. The more you live in the present, your game will improve'. These words will always be etched in my mind. This thing always motivates me a lot," he said.
"I watch his batting videos, his balance and his shot selections. I watch very closely. This also helps me a lot. After practice, I take out time to watch his batting videos. He has played on every type of wicket. Be it Australia, West Indies, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Pakistan or New Zealand, he has dominated every opposition. I try to learn how he batted in different conditions and tracks," he added.
"I generally watch his knock against Australia in the Sydney Test in 2004, when he scored a double century without playing a single cover drive. If I have to learn something from Sachin sir, I would love to learn the art of playing cover and straight drives from him," Yashasvi said.
The pep talk from Tendulkar changed Yashasvi's approach towards the sport.
"I enjoy my batting. I love to score as many runs as I can for my team. My ultimate aim is to bat for as long as possible," Yashavi told timesofindia.com.
"I love to be in the present. If I have not performed well in my last match, I don't think about that at all. I just concentrate on the matches ahead. In short – 'one game at a time'. This is the mantra which drives me forward," Yashasvi signed off.
Sensational List A debut
Manuja Veerappa, Oct 17, 2019: The Times of India
At17,YashasviJaiswal has learnt more life’s lessons than most youngsters his age. He knows what it is to go hungry or not to have a proper roof over his head. The hard days of playing maidan cricket in Mumbai after moving from in Bhadohi in Uttar Pradesh, and the cold nights spent sleeping in cramped tents and selling paanipuris have toughened him. Not one to brood over the things he didn’t have, the teenager has worked on what he can achieve with the talent he has been endowed with. While his skills with the bat has been on display in local leagues for a while now, he shot into limelight last year during the U-19 Asia Cup. Since then, he has taken giant strides.
Playing only his fifth List A match on Wednesday, the youngster struck an awe-inspiring, unconquered double hundred (203 n.o., 154b, 17x4, 12x6) in Mumbai’s win over Jharkhand in the Vijay Hazare Trophy. In the process, he became the youngest male cricketer to score a double century and the third after Karan Kaushal (Uttarakhand in 2018-19) and Sanju Samson (Kerala) to achieve the feat in the tournament. This was his third three-figure mark in the tournament. He had earlier scored 113 (Goa) and 112 (Kerala).
Speaking after Mumbai’s 39-run win, which kept their quarterfinal hopes alive, Jaiswal said: “(The innings) felt good. I didn’t think much and just played the ball on its merit and it (double century) happened.
Jaiswal, who played with an injured wrist, was so focused on his innings that he didn’t realise he was the youngest double centurion till it was brought to his notice. He credits his early struggle for his maturity now. “The early struggle made me mentally strong. I am confident of doing well in whatever situation I’m in now. The struggle is there even now and will always be there. Back then, I enjoyed playing cricket much like I am doing now,” said the soft-spoken youngster.
2024
Childhood to 2024 Feb
Gaurav Gupta, February 19, 2024: The Times of India
Rajkot: The Yashasvi Jaiswal story keeps getting bigger and bigger. On Sunday, the left-handed opener from Mumbai smashed a scintillating double century (214 off 236 balls) — his second on the trot — which included a record 12 sixes, to star in India’s 434-run rout of England in the third Test here. Three of those sixes were hit off consecutive balls off James Anderson, arguably the best swing bowler in the history of the game.
For a while, it seemed that Jaiswal and his fellow Mumbai young gun Sarfaraz Khan, who was making his Test debut, were batting in the IPL, as the duo added 172 in just 158 balls for the fifth wicket in India’s second innings. With India looking for a quick declaration, the duo toyed with England’s bowlers.Returning to bat after retiring hurt at 104 the previous evening due to back spasms, 22-year-old Jaiswal unleashed a record-breaking display, putting the England attack to the sword. His feat becoming only the second batsman in international cricket history to hit 12 sixes in an innings (joining Wasim Akram’s 1996 performance against Zimbabwe) makes his achievement even more remarkable.
Jaiswal’s penchant for hitting sixes came to the fore last year in the IPL, when he carved 26 sixes for the Rajasthan Royals, including a blistering 62-ball 124-run knock against the Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede Stadium.
Till this point in the India-England series, the left-handed opener has scored 545 runs in three Tests@109.00, with two double centuries and one fifty — by far the most by any batsman in the IndiaEngland five-Test series.
Having made 171 on his Test debut against West Indies at Dominica in July last year, Jaiswal has also become the only Indian batsman to have recorded scores of 150-plus in his first three hundreds. Jaiswal has scored 861 runs@71.75 in seven Tests. Jaiswal’s success story, well-documented by now, is as inspirational as it gets. As a kid, he was, for some time, forced to assist pani puri sellers at the Azad Maidan, where he slept in a tent, after his parents left his village, Badohi, in Uttar Pradesh. At that point, Jwala Singh, a well-known local coach in Mumbai, took a then 12-year-old Jaiswal home, providing the boy with shelter, coaching and mentoring from an early age.
Jaiswal dominated the U-19 World Cup in 2020, smashing five fifties and finishing as the highest run-getter. He translated his World Cup success into an IPL bid of 2.4cr, then thrived with 625 runs in 14 matches for Rajasthan Royals.
Jaiswal still has peaks to scale-while he played in a couple of Tests in South Africa in December 2023-January 2024 (scored 85 runs in two Tests@12.50), many feel his real test will come when India tour Australia this winter and England in the summer next year to play Tests. Preparing Jaiswal for overseas Test challenges is the primary focus for Rajasthan Royals High Performance coach Zubin Bharucha, who has been working a lot on Jaiswal’s game in the last few years. “Now, we have to push the boundaries of our sport even further to do the same on every surface. Big chal- lenges lie ahead,” Bharucha told TOI.
Sensibly, post India’s win on Sunday, Indian captain Rohit Sharma preferred to let the young turk carry on with his red-hot form, rather than go ga-ga on him. “I won’t say anything about Jaiswal now, everyone is talking about him. Let him play. He’s playing well and (that) is good for us. He’s in good form. I’m not going to say much more than that,” he said.
As of 2024
Dec 1, 2024: The Times of India
Summer afternoons can be ugly in east UP. Loo, the hot wind said to cause heatstroke, sends people scurrying indoors. But Suriyawan, a ‘kasbah’ (small market town) about 80 km from Varanasi, bustles despite the searing heat. Motorcycle-borne men without helmets honk even when there’s no need to. Pushcarts peddle paneer burgers and badam shake. And devotional music rattles the air.
Towards the end of the main market, near the festooned Mahadev temple, Bhupendra Kumar Jaiswal sits alone on a chair in an unassuming hardware-and-paints store. Around him are stacked ropes, nails, tins — all wearing a thin coat of dust. Nothing separates the bespectacled 60-year-old from the dozens of shopkeepers in this trading town in Bhadohi district that mostly makes its living hawking wholesale goods, especially groceries. But Bhupendra is not just any trader. It was his unswerving determination and bold vision that pushed the youngest of his four children, Yashasvi, to become India’s most-happening young cricketer of 2024.
Like Father…
In his youth, Bhupendra too played cricket. “I was the fastest bowler in the district. They had given me a nickname, Zahar (poison) Khan. My bowling was like poison to batters. Owing to circumstances, I could never play higher cricket,” he says. But rather than turning his life into a litany of lingering regrets, Bhupendra channelised his unfulfilled dreams into honing his sons’ talents. “I swore one of my two sons would play for India. And I prayed to Maa Vindhyavasini to fulfil my wish,” he recalls.
His voice is fervent, and his tone that of a man who decided to go on mission mode to make cricketers out of his sons even though it is a rather unusual desire for someone whose predecessors worked in the farmers’ market. “Aadhat ka kaam karte the (they worked as commission agents),” he says. Bhupendra had noticed early on that his sons were inclined towards sport. “My daughters, Ekta and Namrata, were good at studies. But my sons, Tejasvi and Yashasvi, were only interested in cricket. Of all the toys before him, Yashasvi would always pick up the bat and ball,” he reminisces.
There’s a small ground near his shop on the other side of the road, where the Jaiswals live. There, on a small cement pitch, the boys learnt how to take stance from their father.
Bhupendra remembers a local seniors’ tournament held near the railway station where Yashasvi, only 8 then, scored 34 and Tejasvi, about 13, made 22. Everybody could see the Jaiswal boys had talent.
A Tough Call
But Bhupendra also knew the next step — sending his sons to hone their game in Mumbai — would test his finances. It did. Tejasvi had to return. And Yashasvi’s early Mumbai diaries — getting thrown out of a dairy shop in Mumba Devi, selling golgappas at Azad Maidan — are already part of cricket’s inspirational lore.
One incident, though known, deserves a more detailed recall. The owner of Muslim United cricket club in Azad Maidan tent asked the kid to prove his worth. “He scored 82 runs and the owner gave him a place to sleep,” Bhupendra remembers. At the age of 10, Yashasvi was living alone in a tent in a tough metropolis.
This was the time when Yashasvi started selling golgappas, kulfis and colas in the evenings to earn some money.
“I ran a small shop and had taken a loan to fund my daughters’ education. My resources were limited and I could send him only Rs 1,000-2,000 occasionally. I knocked on many doors. I wanted him to stay there. What he earned in the evenings helped him meet his expenses. He struggled really hard for two-and-a-half years,” he says. Those days of privation and struggle steeled Yashasvi’s core, further fuelling his desire to succeed. It also infused him with the equanimity and maturity evident now in his television interviews.
The young cricketer’s life changed for the better when coach “Jwala Singh sir” took him under his wings. “Jabse unka saath mila, Yashasvi ki duniya badal gayi. Woh hamare liye Bhagwan hain. Jo shiksha unhone di hum nahi de paate (ever since he offered his helping hand, Yashasvi’s life changed. He is like God to us. We would not have been able to give Yashasvi the training he got from him). He brought him up like his own son,” he says.
Reaching The Top
Yashasvi flowered under Jwala’s tutelage, first in local cricket and, then, in national cricket for juniors. He smashed hundreds in Vijay Hazare Trophy (2019) and emerged as the top scorer at the U-19 World Cup in South Africa (2020). He was, by far, India’s best batter on view.
But even the most eagle-eyed of talent spotters are surprised by his phenomenal performance in international cricket. In 15 Tests, the 22-year-old left-handed opening batter has already smashed four big hundreds, including two double tons against England. His tide-turning 161 against Australia last week had former international players going into raptures on TV.
And he is no one-trick pony either. In IPL 2023, Yashasvi blitzkrieged a 13-ball 50 for Rajasthan Royals, the fastest in the tournament’s history. Little surprise, he was retained by the franchise for Rs 18 crore in this year’s auction. It is a matter of time before he breaks into Team India’s ODI side. Yashasvi now endorses Thums Up, a drink he once peddled in Azad Maidan.
Life’s taken a turn for Bhupendra, too. Apart from the shop, he also runs a school and drives an MG Hector. His two daughters, to use a timehonoured expression, are ‘well settled’. And Tejasvi, now 27, is playing first-class cricket for Tripura, albeit with limited success.
Bhupendra regrets that his youngest child is rarely able to visit his hometown owing to his busy schedule. “Yashasvi couldn’t attend his grandfather’s funeral because he was playing in South Africa,” he says, adding, “He calls when free. But I understand he is not just my son anymore. Now he belongs to India.”
PS: Two teenagers show up at the shop. One of them is from a nearby village, the other from a distant town. The hardware doesn’t interest them. They have just come for a selfie with Yashasvi’s dad.
