Yashasvi Jaiswal, who moved from Uttar Pradesh’s Bhadohi had sold roadside ‘Pani Puri’ and worked in a dairy to earn money to live cricket dream at Azad Maidan in Mumbai. He has recalled his meeting with legendary Indian batsman Sachin Tendulkar, who is the leading run-scorer in both Tests and ODIs besides being the only cricketer to score 100 international tons.
The 18-year-old Yashasvi Jaiswal was finally spotted by Jwala Singh in 2013 and became his legal guardian. He performed extraordinary well in 2018 ACC U-19 Asia Cup and also struck a century in Youth Test match against South Africa under -19s before being named in the 2020 U-19 World Cup.
His performance was exemplary as he was the highest run-scorer in a tournament even scoring Ton against Pakistan in the semis. He scored 88 in the final as well without the support of the remaining batsmen as India who scored only 177 lost to Bangladesh by 3 wickets.
Yashasvi Jaiswal Takes Inspiration From Sachin Tendulkar
Yashasvi Jaiswal scored a total of 400 runs at an average of 133.33 in 6 matches which was the highest among all batsmen in the tournament and the second batsman in leading scorers list scored 114 runs less.
In the last 5 years, he has hit 49 centuries across various domestic teams. After performing well in U-19 World Cup he received a signed bat from the Little Master Sachin Tendulkar. The 18-year-old batting sensation has still kept it as a memory, despite the bat being broken.
Yashasvi Jaiswal has said that meeting Sachin Tendulkar is big deal for him at such a young age.
“That bat is broken. But I have kept it in my room as a memory. After the World Cup, I went to meet him (Sachin) at BKC. He hugged me. I had so many things to ask him. I asked about IPL and my World Cup performance. I know I am a left-hander, but I take inspiration from him.”
“One can learn a lot from batting videos. I am lucky that I can meet him and learn. Just look at his skills and dedication, they are a class apart,” he further added.
Yashasvi Jaiswal had a fantastic start to his career by performing well in 2020 U-19 World Cup where he scored 400 runs and also won the Man of the Tournament award. His highest was 105 against Pakistan in the semi-final and he was not dismissed below the score of 59 in the tournament, which is exemplary.
Yashasvi Jaiswal Excited To Play For Rajasthan Royals In IPL 2020
His talent as a left-handed batsman soon grabbed the attention of multiple teams, who were all excited to acquire his services in the IPL 2020 auction.
The Rajasthan Royals finally pocketed him for a whopping INR 2.4 crores after a successful bidding war between the trio of Kolkata Knight Riders, the Mumbai Indians and the Rajasthan Royals.
Yashasvi Jaiswal also expressed that he was excited at the prospect of playing alongside the likes of Australian top-ranked batsman Steve Smith and England pacer Jofra Archer, besides stating that he looks forward to learning from them.
Rajasthan Royals team also features international stars like Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler, David Miller, Oshane Thomas, Andrew Tye and Tom Curran besides boasting of Indian players like Sanju Samson, Shreyas Gopal, Varun Aaron, Robin Uthappa, Ankit Rajpoot and Manan Vohra being a few.
The 2020 edition of the IPL which was postponed from 29th March as the BCCI had no option but to move out of India due to Covid-19 will finally begin from September 19 and will be played in the UAE across three venues – Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah.