As thin as a rake and as strong as an ox, Yashasvi Jaiswal is the most aggressive opener to come out of India since Virender Sehwag and the country’s most exciting batter since Virat Kohli.
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And even within the diverse tapestry of tales that make up the history of Indian cricket, Jaiswal’s story is remarkable.
The son of a shopkeeper in India’s rural north, Jaiswal left home for Mumbai as an 11-year-old to chase his cricketing dream. He’d initially find work and shelter at a dairy. But that wouldn’t last long.
“After playing cricket all day, I would get tired and fall asleep,” Jaiswal told the Indian Express in 2020. “One day, they threw out my luggage, saying I don’t help them and only sleep.”
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For the next three years he lived in a tent at the Muslim United Club, selling pani puri – a type of Indian street food – at Mumbai’s famous Azad Maidan, a 25-acre cricketing mecca covered in pitches that regularly hosts inter-school matches.
“I prayed that my teammates would not show up for pani-puri,” he said. “Sometimes they did, and I felt bad serving them.
“I always used to see boys my age bringing food or their parents had big lunches with them. As for me, it was — khana khud banao, khud khao. (make your own food, eat alone). No breakfast. Catch hold of anyone around and request them to buy breakfast.”
Around the same time Jaiswal was making ends meet selling street food, a pugnacious young man from Delhi was announcing himself as the most enthralling batter of a generation.
Kohli left his first impression of note on Australian audiences in 2012 at the SCG when he stuck up his finger to the crowd, but his most lasting one came two Tests later when he scored India’s lone ton of the series.
The boy had arrived and would go on to define the Australia-India rivalry for the next decade. This summer, the man looks set to be farewelled on these shores.
In his place, Jaiswal looks ready to fill in, having spent the past 18-months establishing himself as the most exciting Indian batter of his generation.
Left-handed, 22, and from the famous Mumbai school of cricket, Jaiswal boasts a batting average of 56.28 with a strike rate of 70.13. And like Kohli before him, when he is in full flow nothing feels out of reach for India.
While there were struggles along the way, Jaiswal’s gamble on the cricketing dream has paid obvious dividends.
By the time he was 17 he had broken through as a professional cricketer, making history in 2019 as List A cricket’s youngest ever double-century maker. That was the third ton of his maiden List A season, and hinted at an appetite for big scores that would only be enhanced by a player of the tournament performance at the 2020 Under-19 Cricket World Cup.
Three years and a mountain of first-class, List A and IPL runs later, Jaiswal would take that appetite onto the international stage, feasting on the West Indies’ attack on Test debut with a patient 171 off 387.
There’s been two more Test tons since – both double-centuries against England – and across his 14 Tests he has passed fifty 11 times.
It’s a propensity to go big he pins on those early years making ends meet in Mumbai.
“In India, when you grow up, you work really hard for each and everything” he told the host broadcaster during India’s Test series against England earlier this year. “Even when getting the bus you have to work really hard to get the bus.
“You have to work really hard to get to the train and auto[rickshaw] and everything. I have done that since my childhood and I know how important every innings is and that’s why I really work hard in my [practice] sessions and every innings counts for me and for my team.”
Having kept close counsel across Jaiswal’s early Tests, captain Rohit Sharma let the cat out of the bag after the youngster’s second double-century.
“The guy has got real talent,” Sharma said. “He has got the game to play in all sorts of conditions.
“He has got all the ingredients for success at this level. What he has shown us in this brief period of time, you can bet on him and expect him to do wonders for the team.”
The one question that remains – the one that has been asked of every rising subcontinental talent for time immemorial – is whether he can do it in Australian conditions.
The bulk of Jaiswal’s success to date has come in the drier conditions of the subcontinent and the Caribbean. In his lone Test tour of South Africa, he averaged 12.50 and in three of his four innings he was done in by the bounce.
At the same time, in his final innings of the tour he notched a rapid 28 off 23 to help India chase down a target of 79. To put the knock in context, it was the fifth highest score of the match, and South Africa was skittled for 55 in its first innings.
He has had success as youth cricket there too, averaging 75.25 across 12 Under-19 ODIs in the rainbow nation.
For what it’s worth he’s being backed to do big things down under by a man who knows a thing or two about leaving an impression in Australia.
“Obviously, the pitches in Australia are slightly different. But if you take your mentality, and if you take that sort of strength that you have, you’re going to play good cricket in any conditions,” Brian Lara said last month. “I expect to see him do well.”
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