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In his short domestic career so far, apart from showing his strength with the bat, Yashasvi Jaiswal knows the value of making chances count.
He has gone through the extraordinary hardships of selling pani puri outside Wankidi Stadium to staying tented in tents while he braves the monsoons and humidity in Mumbai, yet manages the time to learn and play the game he loves most.
Few stories are as inspiring as that of Jaiswal, and he is now just one night away from living the moment he dreamed of all along. Barring any last-minute changes, the 21-year-old will make his Test debut at Windsor Park in Roseau, Dominica, as India officially enters a transition period in red-ball cricket starting with two matches against the West Indies.
It hasn’t been a year since Jeswal appeared on the national radar. A compact left-handed opener, who hits a cricket ball long and hard, he was one of the players who caught the global eye at the Under-19 World Cup in 2020, where India finished as runners-up.
Under-19 prodigies, especially batsmen, making national cuts soon after is nothing new here. It is Jaiswal’s turn whose arrival signals a definite change of direction in Indian cricket. India tends to mark their No. 4 early so they will still prepare the player in other locations before handing him over to them.
One knew Virat Kohli would be No. 4 when he burst onto the scene, just as Shubman Gill was earmarked for the job. However, the number 3 was carefully plucked from the local fields. There was Rahul Dravid and then Chitshwar Pujara. And now everything points to the fact that Jaiswal will be third for the foreseeable future, unless India surprises.
The left-hander at No. 3 was itself a long time coming for India. Since he fought the late Ajit Wadkar at the post in 59 rounds, not a single southern bum lasted even half as long. Sourav Ganguly did it on 18 occasions and Vinod Kambli on 16. Even in the case of Jaiswal, originally an opener, India have been forced to try it out at No. 3 because it is the only position considered open and the word among selectors and team management is that there are plenty of options to bat at the top.
Yashasvi Jaiswal of the Rajasthan Royals celebrates after winning the Indian Premier League cricket match against Kolkata Knight Riders in Kolkata, India, Thursday, May 11, 2023 (AP Photo)
Cricket wise too, there is the notion that having a left-handed, strong and compact third-inning person will break the monotony.
“Be it technically or mentally, he is ready and eager to go,” Amol Muzumdar, who has coached Jaiswal for the Rajasthan Royals and Mumbai, told the Indian Express. “I always feel it’s better when a batsman is undercooked than when he’s overcooked when he’s cutting internationals. Because when you get to the top level, if you’re undercooked or raw, you end up learning over a period of time and noticing the little things that matter. It is always beneficial to learn the trade while playing at the highest level rather than spending too much time on domestic cricket.”
Fit for the big step
Muzumdar believes that Jaiswal has gotten his call-up at the right time as he has seen the highs and lows of the game and is in great shape. Having seen him struggle a bit in long form as there was no red-ball cricket during the 2020/21 season following the Under-19 World Cup which Jaiswal was a part of, Muzumdar did not start in the Ranji Trophy group stages. in 2022. Only after a good run of performances during the Indian Premier League, “strategic punter” Muzumdar included him in the 11 for the knockout stages held in June.
Jaiswal would start with a second innings century in the quarter-final against Uttarakhand, before scoring twice in the semi-final against Uttar Pradesh. Those three centuries would put him in the Western Province squad for the Duleep Cup, where he scored 265 in the final against Al-Janoub, and in the Iran Cup, he scored a century in each innings, including 213 in the first.
“There has been steady growth from his Under-19 days. He was earmarked as one for the future, and he was bought by Rajasthan Royals who saw him as someone to invest in. They spent a lot of time and energy on preparing him. Meanwhile, the returns were higher. RR knew this was the A player who will play regularly in the next two years for them and it has happened this season. The last three years at RR and Mumbai, it’s been steady progression for him. He’s matured in each season. He had trouble with the red ball at the start. He’s had to toughen up on the offending side Especially. When he wanted to leave the ball, he had to do it much earlier than he was doing at the time and worked on it. But the knock-outs of the Ranji Trophy held after IPL was a motivator for him,” Muzumdar said.
mental attack
Apart from filling the shoes of Pujara, the player tailored for the No. 3 position, Jaiswal’s – more aggressive – style of play will also bring about a change in approach. It is something India is not used to, having had two solid walls since the late 20th century. If anything, Jaiswal is more daring in terms of playing school shots – he crossed the mark with a gold haul for six in last year’s Duleep Trophy quarter-finals and Muzumdar thinks he’ll be useful in third place for the time being.
“He has all the ingredients. I hope people don’t bring Dravidian or Pujara numbers to him. He has to be given the long rope to accept the challenge of international cricket, and when you get over the tide, it gets better,” said Muzumdar.
Since Ajinkya Rahane and Rohit Sharma, three Mumbai school batsmen have not been able to keep the tide in Test cricket. Prithvi Shaw, Shreyas Iyer and Surykumar Yadav have all been found wanting red-ball cricket with glaring technical problems, but Muzumdar believes Jaiswal can turn that around. “It’s about how much you want to play Tests for India. It belongs very much to the Mumbai school of batting. When the ball is there for the drive, you have to play. Mumbai’s batting is all about handling the ball on merit. It’s not just about long hitting “It’s a myth. Sandeep Patel and Ravi Shastri played the shots. No one was more aggressive than Sachin Tendulkar.”
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