With four 150-plus Test scores and a record-breaking IPL campaign already under his belt, the boy from the backstreets is the new darling of Indian cricket. There's no limit to what he can achieve, writes Aadya Sharma.
This article first appeared in issue 83 of Wisden Cricket Monthly, available to buy in print or digital form here.
It was almost exactly five years ago that Yashasvi Jaiswal first grabbed headlines. At 17, he had become the world's youngest-ever List A double-centurion.
The astonishment in India was widespread, but fleeting. Batting prodigies are discovered every few months in this country - as I write, a thirteen-year-old, Vaibhav Suryavanshi, has secured an IPL deal – but then, the story surfaced. The son of a shopkeeper from the tiny town of Bhadohi had travelled 1,500 kilometres to Mumbai in the hope of becoming a cricketer. Sleeping in tents and selling street snacks for survival, Jaiswal emerged from the humblest of beginnings to be branded India's next batting hero. He has climbed very high, very fast. A couple of centuries ago, he would have been the protagonist of a Horatio Alger novel.
Jaiswal gives Test-match opening a modern twist; his coaching manual comes with a long appendix. The nucleus is built in the traditional mould, the strokes carry a rich tone, but they're layered with the complexity and ingenuity of modern shot-making.
When I first met him at the 2020 Under-19 World Cup, Jaiswal was already the cynosure in a crowd of unknowns. The media had turned his journey into a tearjerker; even when he becomes a big-ticket superstar- and he will - the Cinderella backstory won't leave him. At the World Cup in South Africa, everyone wanted a piece of him. He insisted on being interviewed in English, wanting to belong and be heard. The words came out slowly and softly but the eyes conveyed much more, welling up when he described his disturbing initiation to Mumbai. Jaiswal's family couldn't afford to support his dreams: at one point, his elder brother, who now plays in the Ranji Trophy, put his own ambitions on hold to focus his energy on Yashasvi.
Jaiswal first stayed with his uncle before moving into a tent alongside ground staff at the Muslim United Club in Azad Maidan, an arena cramped with cricketing hopefuls. It brought him closer to the game, but also exposed him to the numbing reality of daily survival.
"I stayed in a tent for three years," he told me in 2019. "It wasn't easy at all. There was no proper food to eat, neither did I have clothes. There was no water or electricity." He had previously revealed he was beaten up and forced to do chores at the scanty living quarters.
His life changed in 2013 when he met Jwala Singh, a local Mumbai coach. Under his tutelage, Jaiswal's early spark found a moulding force. Jwala had spotted a small kid confidently negotiating a tricky pitch while a seasoned academy player complained. He was even more impressed when he saw newspaper cuttings of Jaiswal's Harris Shield inter-school scores. Having encountered similar hurdles in his own playing days, Jwala took the boy in.
By 2015, Jaiswal had graduated to the Mumbai under-16s as a middle-order all-rounder. When he progressed to the India under-19s his chance came as an opener, and he repaid the faith by being named Player of the Tournament in the 2018 Under-19 Asia Cup. By the following year he had found his way into Mumbai's senior team.
Watching him bat at the Under-19 World Cup, it was clear he was meant for bigger things. Comfortably the top run-getter, he had already secured a multi-million IPL contract with Rajasthan Royals. He hit the most sixes in the junior global event, but Jaiswal's scrawny frame wasn't yet up to IPL. power-hitting standards. "It was just too far for him," said Jwala. In his first IPL season he was out of his depth, managing 40 runs in three games. Jwala remembers Jaiswal crying on the phone: "Sir, maine apna pehla IPL barbaad kar diya. Kuch nahi kiya maine." ("I have ruined my first IPL. I just couldn't do anything.")
With no matches through the Covid pandemic, he worked with hard, plastic balls on cement pitches against fast bowlers. To develop his power game he underwent sessions of six-hitting with 80m boundaries. "Just hit sixes, I don't mind how many times you get out," he was told by Jwala. His game started expanding.
When Jaiswal reconnected with Rajasthan Royals, a franchise known for nurturing unpolished talent, their director of high performance, Zubin Bharucha, worked with him to improve his endurance levels and mental strength.
"He came directly from under-19 cricket and had next to no exposure to T20 cricket," Bharucha tells WCM. "His technique was adequate but a little one-sided: he was mainly an off side player with little to no leg-side game. But the character was evident immediately as he turned up to our trials and scooped the first ball of the day for four."
Through that transitional period Jaiswal's batting discovered more gears, becoming less automated. His shot-making became more playful as he added the ramp, lofted drive and flick to his repertoire.
"We have taken the format-specific versions out of our teachings and philosophy, and focus only on how to maximise runs per ball, by getting into positions to hit balls into areas where there are no fielders," says Bharucha. "However, we do bring specificity to the preparation by altering the conditions, intensity and variability. We're able to practise on pitch conditions [in the Nagpur high-performance centre] varying from spinning to scaming pitches, volume of balls, variety of bowlers, frequency and variation in bowlers, constantly changing time and pace."
The specialised attention fused the gaps in Jaiswal's game and gave the once lonely boy the security of a team around him. The shift in mindset was evident: he wasn't batting for a square meal anymore, he was batting to feast.
Kumar Sangakkara joined the Royals in 2021 and quickly became a mentor. This year, Rahul Dravid was appointed the franchise's head coach - Jaiswal has worked under him at junior level as well as with the senior national team.
"He has always been mentally very resilient, we have simply offered access to some of the best people in the field and he occasionally uses their counsel," says Bharucha of the support team around Jaiswal.
In 2022, Jaiswal became the joint-fastest Indian to 1,000 first-class runs. In 2023, he broke the record for the most
runs by an uncapped player in an IPL. season. The strike- rate jumped from 133 to 164 between IPL. 2022 and 2023.
Like all the best modern batters, Jaiswal has learnt when to attack and when to restrain himself. On Test debut in the Caribbean, he batted for more than eight hours to carefully graft 171. Less than a year later, he terrorised England with two double-centuries in the same series, also equalling Wasim Akram's record for 12 sixes in a Test innings. He's already broken Brendon McCullum's record for the most sixes in a calendar year, clearing the ropes 35 times in 23 knocks heading into December's Adelaide Test. The term "Jaisball' has quickly become more than just a cheap rip-off.
Bharucha is confident that Jaiswal's approach is a recipe for success whatever the format but acknowledges India's relentless schedule poses challenges. "If we cover all these bases we don't believe there is any requirement to single out the format beyond making some tiny tweaks along the way. The biggest hurdle we have found is time to prepare between series. With limited preparation going abroad and dominating is going to be challenging in the short term."
Following his successful maiden Test tour in the Caribbean, Jaiswal's second overseas assignment, in South Africa last winter, resulted in four forgettable innings. The ongoing series in Australia had been dubbed the litmus test for his naturally aggressive approach against the new ball.
"Without having the time to practise curtailing the natural instincts which may work in India but maybe not abroad, the only option is to put plans in place through discussions," says Bharucha. "However, we are also cognisant that the preparation may not always be perfect and there must be awareness around adapting within an innings based on bowlers and conditions."
Those attacking instincts kicked in when he opened for the first time in Australia, succumbing to an eight- ball duck at Perth after slashing a wide delivery to gully. But his second-innings 161 was an exhibition in how quickly he has developed, surviving the early test before his drives and cuts clicked into place. By the time he started ramping Australia's fabled pace attack over the slip cordon, survival had made way for a feast. He sledged Mitchell Starc and teased Marnus Labuschagne. The boy is now jacked-up on self-confidence.
The start has been dreamy, drawing a wide range of comparisons. Cheteshwar Pujara believes Jaiswal can emulate David Warner in Australia. Chris Gayle views him as an attacking version of Shivnarine Chanderpaul. Irfan Pathan compares him to Sourav Ganguly. Brian Lara is confident Jaiswal will break his records. Imagine being a combination of all those players, and more.
This isn't to say that Jaiswal is the finished article. Not yet 23, he will have a barrage of challenges coming his way. The length ball that kicks up and leaves him has been an area of vulnerability, with a tendency to prod at the ball carly in his innings, while his leg-side game remains limited. But the possibilities are limitless.
Cricket in India can be brutally unforgiving, and even some of the brightest sparks have been extinguished almost as quickly as they've ignited. But Jaiswal's first steps at international level have been as good as any Indian batter in history. The boy from Bhadohi who achieved his dream against all the odds is shaping up to become the game's leading all-format batting superstar.
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