New Delhi: Yashasvi Jaiswal has demonstrated his bat skills in his brief domestic career thus far, but he has also shown that he is capable of making the most of his opportunities.
He has endured incredible hardships, like working as a pani puri vendor outside Wankhede Stadium and sleeping in a tent in the Mumbai maidans while enduring the monsoon and humidity. Despite all of this, he still finds time to practice the game he loves the most. Few tales are as inspiring as Jaiswal's, and he is now only one night away from experiencing the moment of which he has always dreamed. The 21-year-old will, barring any last-minute alterations, make his Test debut at Roseau, Dominica's Windsor Park stadium as India formally begins a transition period in red-ball cricket with two matches against the West Indies.
Jaiswal's appearance on the national stage isn't even a year old. At the Under-19 World Cup in 2020, where India finished as runners-up, he was one of the players who captured the attention of the world. He is a compact left-handed opener who hits the cricket ball far and hard.
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It is not uncommon for under-19 prodigies, particularly batters, to make the national team shortly after. It's Jaiswal's turn now, and his entry marks a significant turning point in Indian cricket. India chooses its No. 4 well in advance so that they can continue developing the player in other positions before giving it to them.
Virat Kohli was expected to be the No. 4 when he first appeared, just as Shubman Gill was expected to fill the role. However, the No. 3 was carefully selected from domestic fields. Rahul Dravid came first, followed by Cheteshwar Pujara. And at this moment, unless India pulls a surprise, all signs point to Jaiswal remaining at No. 3 for the foreseeable future.
It has taken India a long time to have a left-hander at No. 3. Not a single southpaw has survived even half that long since the late Ajit Wadekar batted in that position for 59 innings. Vinod Kambli did it 16 times, while Sourav Ganguly did it 18 times. Even though Jaiswal was originally intended to bat as an opener, India has been compelled to give him a chance at No. 3 because it is the only position that is thought to be open and because team management and selectors agree that there are just too many possibilities to bat at the top. There is a belief that having a left-hander who is reliable and compact at No. 3 will break up the monotony in cricket as well.
“Be it technically and from the mental side, he is ready and raring to go,” Amol Muzumdar, who coached Jaiswal at Rajasthan Royals and Mumbai, told . “I always feel it is better when a batsman is little undercooked than overcooked when he makes the international cut. Because when you graduate to the top level, if you are undercooked or raw, you end up learning over a period of time and observe small things that matter. It is always effective to learn the trade while playing at the highest level rather than spending a lot of time in domestic cricket,” he said.
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Because Jaiswal has seen the highs and lows of the game and is in good shape, Muzumdar thinks he was called up at the correct time. Jaiswal struggled a little in the long format during the 2020–21 season, which followed the U–19 World Cup in which he competed, therefore Muzumdar decided not to start him in the 2022 Ranji Trophy group stages. Muzumdar "strategically gambled" by selecting him for the XI for the June knockout stages only after a strong stretch of play during the Indian Premier League.
Jaiswal began the tournament with a second innings century against Uttarakhand in the quarterfinal before scoring two against Uttar Pradesh in the semifinal. With those three centuries, he qualified for the West Zone team for the Duleep Trophy, where he scored 265 versus South in the championship game, and for the Irani Cup, where he scored a century in each of the four innings, including a 213 in the first one.
“There has been a steady growth from his Under-19 days. He was earmarked as one for the future, and was bought by the Rajasthan Royals who saw him as one to invest in. They spent a lot of time and energy grooming him. And at the same time, the returns were higher. RR knew this was a player who is going to play regularly in the next couple of years for them and it happened this season. In the last three years at RR and Mumbai, it has been a steady progress for him. He has matured every season. He had a bit of an issue with the red ball initially. He had to tighten up on the off-side especially. When he wanted to leave the ball, he had to do it a lot earlier than he was doing back then and worked on that. But the Ranji Trophy knockouts held after the IPL were a catalyst for him,” Muzumdar said.
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Along with stepping into Pujara's shoes, a player who was ideally suited for the No. 3 spot, Jaiswal's far more aggressive style of play requires a shift in strategy. India has had two complete walls since the late 20th century, therefore it is not accustomed to it. In fact, Jaiswal is far more bold when it comes to playing textbook strokes; in the Duleep Trophy quarterfinal last year, he got off to a good start with a pull that went for a six, and Muzumdar thinks he'd be useful at No. 3 for the foreseeable future.
Three batsmen from the Mumbai school of batting haven't been able to hold the line in Test cricket since Ajinkya Rahane and Rohit Sharma. Red-ball cricket has been found to be lacking in Prithvi Shaw, Shreyas Iyer, and Surykumar Yadav due to apparent technical faults, but Muzumdar thinks Jaiswal can rectify that. “It is about how badly you want to play Tests for India. He is very much from the Mumbai school of batting. When the ball is there for a cover drive, you have to play. Mumbai batsmanship is all about treating the ball on merit. It is not just about batting long, it is a myth. Sandeep Patil, Ravi Shastri played shots. There was no one more aggressive than Sachin Tendulkar.”
“He has all the ingredients. I hope people don’t bring Dravid’s or Pujara’s numbers to him. He has to be given the long rope to embrace the challenge that international cricket throws up and when you go through the tide, you become better,” Muzumdar said.
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