“You can sense how the atmosphere is when a legend like Jos Buttler sacrifices his wicket away for Yashasvi Jaiswal,” said Sanju Samson, the Rajasthan Royals skipper, after his team had hammered Kolkata Knight Rirder (KKR) by 9 wickets on Thursday. Buttler giving up his wicket for a youngster is not something you would expect, but it does say a lot about the talent and sparkling form of Yashasvi Jaiswal.
Jaiswal, who plays his first-class cricket for Mumbai, has been hitting the headlines with his superlative batting this season. On Thursday, as soon as Nitish Rana, the Kolkata captain, took the ball for the first over, Jaiswal’s eyes lit up, ad he smashed him for 26 runs, the second-most expensive opening over in 16 seasons of the IPL. He then further rewrote the record books with a 13-ball half-century, the fastest in the tournament’s history.
Jaiswal is now reaping the rewards and being spoken of as an India prospect, but the seeds of this stunning rise were sown under the guidance of Jwala Singh, his coach. Those who follow domestic cricket have already seen Jaiswal hitting the right notes with the bat. He became the fastest Indian to reach 1000 runs in first-Class cricket, equalling the marks set by Rusi Modi and Amol Muzumdar (13 innings), and those watchers will tell you that his talent extends across formats.
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Jaiswal was brought up in Bhadohi, a town 50km away from Varanasi. His parents, Bhupendra and Kaanchan, struggled to make ends meet. At the age of 13, Yashasvi convinced his father to take him to Mumbai, where he could find better opportunities to develop his cricket skills. He found a home in a tent near Azad Maidan. Soon, he caught the attention of Jwala, who had himself moved to Mumbai from Gorakhpur at a similar age, and did not want Jaiswal to endure the same struggles that he had faced.
“I first saw him at Azad Maidan,” said Jwala, in conversation with RevSportz. “One of my friends came to me and said, ‘He is an extremely talented player but uske life mein wanda chal raha hai (he is going through a lot of troubles in his personal life)’. What stuck with me that day was his grit. There was another guy with him at the nets, and the pitch was not that great for batting. The other boy was continuously complaining about the practice wicket, but Yashasvi batted beautifully that day. The boy had talent.
“When Yashasvi came out of the nets and took his helmet off, I told my friend, ‘He is so tiny’. I called him over, and he introduced himself to me – ‘My name is Yashasvi Jaiswal’. I guess he must have been around 13 years of age at that time. I asked him for his address and family, and that was when he told me that he stayed in the Muslim United tent in that ground, alone, and that his parents were back in his village in Bhadohi.
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“I saw some of the newspapers cuttings of him and straightaway asked him: ‘Why are you not playing at a higher level’? To which he answered, ‘Sir, mujhe koi khelne nahi deta hai and sab bolte hai Mumbai se koi khel nahi sakta hai. Tu khelne jayega toh tereko ban kar denge (Nobody allows me to play. Everyone says that nobody can play for Mumbai. If you want to play, then they will ban you)’. You know how the local bullies behave sometimes when they see an outsider. He was actually being treated like an outsider.”
Not being allowed to play was the least of Jaiswal’s problems. “He didn’t have any documents [address or identity proof] in Mumbai,” said Jwala. “His father used to send Rs 500-1000 every month, but it was tough to take care of expenses from that money. It reminded me of my own journey. I was 13 and came from Gorakhpur to play cricket in Mumbai back in 1995, in almost similar conditions.
“I had gone through what he was going through – the daily expenses, staying alone, managing your cricket, it was a major struggle. And whatever money you get is never enough in a city like Mumbai. So, I told him he would stay with me. From there on, I have provided Yashasvi with everything he needed. Be it quality training or proper nutrition – he has got everything needed to fulfil his cricketing dream. He is family. I get emotional whenever I think about those days. He was just a kid back then, and look at him now.”
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Jaiswal has now cracked the IPL code and is very much in the running for the coveted Orange Cap. He his second on the list, behind Faf du Plessis, with 575 runs in 12 matches. A brilliant average of 52.27, and an astonishing strike-rate of 167.15. However, despite all that the 21-year-old Jaiswal has achieved on the field, the media and fans have tried to build an emotional narrative about he sold pani puri during his days of struggle at Azad Maidan.
“The pani-puri-seller narrative is so wrong,” said Jwala. “I feel bad. He never had his own stall, but was assisting a guy to earn some extra money when he was all alone. It was before I met him. After that, he has received everything needed to live his life. The video, which has gone viral, in which Yashasvi is seen selling pani puri, was a scripted thing. The broadcasters wanted to narrate his story with an emotional angle and, hence, I requested him to act.
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“The original pani-puri seller, whom Yashasvi was assisting, still goes about his business in front of Azad Maidan. You can go and check with him. That story takes away the years of hard work Yashasvi has put in to build his game. Every time, everyone says the same thing. ‘Dekh, pani-puri-wala ladka aaj runs maar raha hai IPL mein (Look, the pani-puri-boy is scoring runs today in the IPL)’. Credit him for his talent and hard work, not for something that he did before 2013.”
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On his Irani Cup debut against Madhya Pradesh, Jaiswal scored a century for the Rest of India team, adding to his earlier double-century of 213 off 259 balls. This feat made Jaiswal the first batter to score a double-century and a century in a single Irani Cup match. He also became the highest run-scorer in an Irani Cup match, surpassing Shikhar Dhawan’s previous record of 332 runs set in the 2012-13 season.
Jaiswal, a left-hand bat with supreme timing, has been in excellent form in the red-ball format since the beginning of the 2022-23 season. He smashed a double-century off 227 runs on his Duleep Trophy debut for West Zone. Later, on his India A debut against Bangladesh, in November 2022, he scored a ton.
He is far more than an IPL poster boy. He started his journey in traditional fashion. After smashing runs in age-group cricket and bagging the Player of the Tournament award at the 2020 Under-19 World Cup, Jaiswal waited for his chance in Mumbai colours. And once he got the nod, he allowed his bat to do the talking.
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The lanes of Mumbai are packed with cricket stories. While not many are lucky to get the assistance of former Indian cricketers, a few known faces from Mumbai came out to guide Jaiswal in his early days. “I got help from many of my friends on the Mumbai cricket circuit,” said Jwala. “Be it Paras Mhambrey or Wasim Jaffer or Dileep Vengsarkar. Everyone was hands-on for Yashasvi. Vengsarkar even admitted him to his academy. That was not due to my recommendation, but just because of his talent. We even sent him to the UK to fine-tune his skills and get a hang of different conditions. To play top-level cricket, in today’s competitive world, I felt it was necessary to provide him with top-notch facilities. He got everything.
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“He has seen the tough life. When he is getting everything – runs, awards, accolades – he wants more. His hunger is what separates him from the rest. What is important is to keep your head down, and play your best cricket.”