Within a short period, Yashasvi Jaiswal has emerged as the youth icon of Indian cricket. He celebrates his 23rd birthday on December 28, 2024 but already this tall slim youngster has compiled a list of impressive batting performances in his brief career. However, in order to reach the heights he is capable of achieving, he must keep himself mentally steady and not get distracted by early success.
Moreover, he must polish his technique in dealing with short pitched deliveries which seems to be a chink in his armour.
Jaiswal’s run rate tends to slow down against the genuinely fast bowlers. Against such bowlers 40 percent of the balls that he faced were dot balls. However, Australian cricketer Glenn Maxwell has made a bold prediction that if Jaiswal goes on to fulfill his true potential then he will end up with 40 Test centuries before he retires.
Solid start
Jaiswal made his Test debut against the West Indies in 2023 and right away stamped his class in international cricket by scoring 171 as an opener.
He followed it up with double centuries in two consecutive Test matches against England in 2024. He became the third Indian batter to achieve the feat after Vinod Kambli and Virat Kohli. Jaiswal is also the third youngest cricketer in Test history to record two double centuries after Sir Don Bradman and Vinod Kambli.
After Sunil Gavaskar’s amazing start in the West Indies in 1971, Jaiswal became the second Indian batter to cross 700 runs in a Test series.
What motivates him?
To understand what has enabled this young man to become such a determined run scorer, we must go back to his childhood.
He was born in a small village near Bhadohi in Uttar Pradesh, as the fourth of six children, to Bhupendra Jaiswal who owned a small hardware store, and his wife Kanchan Jaiswal, a homemaker. When Yashasvi Jaiswal was only a small lad of ten years, he was sent to Mumbai to further his budding cricket career.
Big gamble
It was a very big gamble but it worked. In the initial years, the little boy was provided accommodation in a dairy shop where he did part-time work. But when his cricket schedule interfered with his work, the landlord threw him out. It was a dark period for a small boy who had not even entered his teens.
Years of hardship
But the little lad showed exemplary determination to achieve his goal. He found accommodation in a tent that was used by groundsmen at the Azad Maidan where he played. It was merely a tent where equipment was stored. That is how the little boy lived. After cricket practice, he took to selling paani-puri on the streets to make an income.
The ten-year-old boy had no siblings to play with and his parents were not available to guide him. If he fell ill, he had no one to take care of him.
After living in the tent for three years, Jaiswal’s cricketing potential was spotted in 2013 by Jwala Singh, who ran a cricket academy in Mumbai. The coach provided Jaiswal with a place to stay and also guided his cricket career along the right path.
Such tremendous determination and willingness to make great sacrifices to achieve a distant goal is extremely rare to find in a small child. But Jaiswal had this golden quality. Those years of loneliness, hardships, and dejections made the boy learn harsh lessons. He realised he must be mentally strong and consistent in his game.
All those years of overcoming physical and emotional hardships have made him a tough and hardened young man who can overcome great obstacles. He is like a sword forged in the fire of hardships. Surely his mettle will also show him the way to a magnificent future in cricket.
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