Homeless boy Yashasvi Jaiswal has stormed the cricket fields of India hammering the bowling with ease in a way that no other young player had ever done in the IPL before.
He has been the talking point at every venue even when his team Rajasthan Royals are not playing and his tally of 575 runs has been packed with a century, several half tons, 26 sixes and 74 fours that has raised eyebrows all over India and the many cricket followers watching the matches on television.
As a 11-year old boy he moved away from a poor sleepy town in Uttar Pradesh to the bustling city of Mumbai to learn what cricket is about and was virtually homeless without a place to lodge.
He slept in tents and ate biscuits to appease hunger and when he needed money he would sell what is called ‘pani puri’, a street snack.
Today Jaiswal’s biggest accomplishment has been giving his parents and family “a comfortable life”.
“I still think the same and I stay the same. I haven’t made any extraordinary changes in my life and I am not going to either. I want to move forward in the same way I’ve done so far.
“I know how much hard work and dedication it takes to achieve what you want. I am so blessed. Thank you, God and thank you cricket,” Jaiswal said looking back.
Jaiswal won a place in the Mumbai state team in 2019 and became the youngest batsman at 17 years to score a domestic one-day double century.
His big break came when he was bought by Rajasthan for $338,000 in the 2019 IPL auction.
Jaiswal opens the batting for the Rajasthan Royals with England’s T20 specialist Jos Buttler and is said to be the most outstanding striker of the ball with many of his shots sailing into the crowd.
“It was amazing batting with him (Buttler),” Jaiswal says. “We talk a lot - maybe not in the middle but outside the ground. He just tells me simple and clear things that I need to do. If he says something, I trust him and follow it. He just says, ‘play good cricketing shots’,” said Jaiswal.
He does not take anything for granted and will make no secret of his success in the current IPL that has put himself alongside or even ahead of the greats.
“Since I open the batting, I mostly need to know how to time the ball, but if I’m batting towards the end, I should be able to hit as well. So I’m working on myself for the last few overs as well.
“It’s not like you come and play and you’re so talented and it will happen like that. I have worked on each and every kind of ball, I have worked on different types of shots - it’s literally hard work,” he adds.