AHMEDABAD: As Yashasvi Jaiswal rushed in to embrace Brian Lara following an extraordinary 175 in the second Test against West Indies, Lara jokingly said, “Don’t beat our bowlers that bad.” The humorous remark was a glowing endorsement of the lofty standards that the 23-year-old batter has set. “Keep getting the hundreds. Daddy hundreds,” reacted Sunil Gavaskar. Jaiswal’s 175 is his fifth 150+ score in Tests before turning 24, which only Don Bradman managed to surpass. The 23-year-old’s conversion of 50+ scores after 49 innings in Tests stands at nearly 39.6%, which is better than Sachin Tendulkar (36.2%), Ricky Ponting (35.9%), Brian Lara (35.3%) and even Virat Kohli‘s (29%) tally at a similar stage.Jaiswal has scored seven tons in Tests, which is the joint-most by an opener before turning 24 alongside Graeme Smith. Only Bradman (12), Tendulkar (11) and Garry Sobers (9) surpassed the 23-year-old’s tally in Tests before that time period. While Jaiswal’s success is certainly impressive, there is a lot of hard work, intensity and mental strength which goes behind delivering performances of this magnitude.
“Mumbai’s famous ‘khadoos mentality’ is reflected in his gameplay. Jaiswal’s struggle and character motivate him to make every little opportunity count. The environment obviously played a role, considering the Mumbai cricket system is super tough with high competition. None of us have been in his shoes, living in a tent. Sacrifices have been made but the game-changer is Jaiswal’s work ethic,” the cricketer’s mentor Zubin Bharucha told TimesofIndia.com during the recent Test series against England..The 23-year-old batter had to initially make certain adjustments in his strokeplay and develop his onside game along with the reserve sweep. However, Jaiswal swiftly enhanced his craftsmanship due to a strong desire to be the best in the world.
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“The preparation is where the magic starts. Jaiswal wanted to be perfect at whatever shot he couldn’t play. He wouldn’t leave the ground till he achieved excellence in, for example, playing the reverse sweep, practising the stroke 300 times a day. I remember a practice session in Guwahati where he came to bat in the middle of the afternoon, eventually finishing at 2 AM. There’s a different mindset involved in such practice sessions which is rare. It’s almost spiritual. You can imagine the blood, sweat and tears involved. Being brilliant, brave and creative is what eventually leads to top performances,” added Bharucha.“I remember a training session two or three years back where Jaiswal was preparing to face Jofra Archer. We found a sidearm pacer who was assigned the role of bowling bouncers at 150 kph. There was a chance of injury. Very few people would agree to such practice drills. However, Jaiswal was more than willing to take up the challenge,” he stated.Sri Lanka batting coach Julian Wood likened the 23-year-old’s capabilities to Abhishek Sharma, hailing his clarity of thought.“He has the discipline to get the job done with an ability to tear attacks apart astutely. Jaiswal can manipulate the field beautifully like Abhishek Sharma, absorbing the pressure well. His body positioning, ruthlessness and swing are excellent, enabling him to score those mammoth runs. Along with that, Jaiswal completely trusts his fundamentals and has a clear idea of his capabilities, just like Abhishek,” said Wood.“He makes the margin of error for bowlers very small. If you bowl too straight, Jaiswal will flick you. Batters often get tied up with technique but the key aspect in his gameplay is the complete clarity,” he added.Former Indian cricketers Pravin Amre and Wasim Jaffer have backed the 23-year-old batter to achieve even more success. Amre highlighted Jaiswal being a left-hander as a big advantage to the Indian team, terming his consistency “amazing” and resilience praiseworthy.“Jaiswal understands the importance of converting starts into big scores. I am confident that he could have scored a triple century if not for that unfortunate dismissal on 175. The ability to bounce back is evident — when Jaiswal’s back is to the wall, he always finds a way to score runs. There’s still a lot of time for him to achieve even greater things,” said Jaffer.While Jaiswal maintains optimum focus on his preparation, another aspect which holds him in great stead is being a good listener. “Whenever he feels a little down due to things not going as per plan, I tell him, ‘It has been so tough reaching this stage. Surely, we are not going to let our place go to somebody else’. We have long conversations even at 2 AM. Jaiswal once told me that he feels he’s late on the ball, which is when I corrected him and told him that he’s actually early. He knows when he is doing something wrong. We were very clear that an adjustment is necessary with regard to facing left-arm spinners like Mitchell Santner. Jaiswal applies all the suggestions instantly,” stated Bharucha. “He comes and asks questions about the kind of preparation necessary when travelling to Australia and England as well as the aspects that can be done differently. Jaiswal is always thinking and tinkering. I watch every ball faced by him following a knock and pinpoint even the tiniest of errors, ” he added.Jaiswal idolises Sachin Tendulkar and has attempted to emulate the legendary batter’s discipline from an early age, as evident from an anecdote shared by former Mumbai U-19 cricket team coach Satish Samant. “Jaiswal was promoted to the under-19 Mumbai team from the under-16 level back in 2017-18. I saw him bat in the nets and was impressed. A selector asked me whether Jaiswal is fit to play at the U-19 level. I said, ‘He deserves to play Ranji Trophy’. There was an under-19 match against a strong Madhya Pradesh side where I told Jaiswal to play any shot barring the slog sweep as he had been dismissed playing that shot on certain occasions. He didn’t play it at all during the opening day,” shared Samant.
