Yashasvi Jaiswal

On his Test debut in the West Indies in 2023, Yashasvi Jaiswal announced his arrival by slamming 171. Then followed a forgettable tour to South Africa with low returns, but he made up for it with a memorable five-match home series against England in early 2024.

Opening the innings with Rohit Sharma, he amassed 712 runs in the series and notched up many records on the way. Jaiswal became the third youngest Indian batter after Vinod Kambli and Virat Kohli to score two double hundreds in two consecutive Tests. In the first innings of the second Test in Visakhapatnam, he scored 209, followed it up with 214 not out in the second innings of the third Test in Rajkot.

Still early days for Jaiswal in international cricket, and there have been instances in the past where bright starts by promising talents fizzled away under the pressure of expectations. However, Jaiswal, armed with solid technique and temperament, can build a promising career in all formats.

How did it all begin? Jaiswal in the hope of playing cricket professionally, moved from Uttar Pradesh to Mumbai. He slept in tents, sold pani puri on the streets of Mumbai, until Jwala Singh, a local coach spotted his talent and took him under his wings. His cricketing career took shape from there on.

In 2019, Jaiswal was already part of Mumbai's squad for Vijay Hazare Trophy, where he scored two centuries and one double hundred before Mumbai was knocked out of the 50-over domestic tournament. He was part of the India squad for the 2020 U-19 World Cup in South Africa, where he impressed by bagging the Player of the Tournament award, with the team finishing as second-best. With the IPL auction happening around that time, his U-19 World Cup exploits helped him get signed by Rajasthan Royals for Rs 2.4 crore.

Though having dominated U-19 attacks, Jaiswal says it was the training at Rajasthan Royals that did wonders to his confidence. He had quiet IPL seasons in 2020 and 2021, however, the Royals decided to retain Jaiswal ahead of the 2022 season. Jaiswal vindicated the franchise's decision, when he took the IPL 2023 by storm and scored the fastest fifty in the tournament's history, off just 13 balls.

In the same IPL edition, Jaiswal scored his maiden hundred in the tournament, a 124 against Mumbai Indians that broke the record for the highest IPL score by an uncapped player. The left-handed batter finished IPL 2023 with 625 runs at an average of 48.08 and a strike rateof 160. In his first full season of Ranji Trophy in 2021-22 for Mumbai, he slammed three consecutive centuries.

The purple patch in the domestic circuit and IPL, helped the selectors to take notice of the southpaw and national call up followed. Jaiswal was included in India's squad for the West Indies tour where he made an immediate impact by slamming a hundred on Test debut. He was part of India's squad in the Asian Games and scored a century against Nepal. Jaiswal is yet to make his ODI debut, but sooner than later he will be raking up runs in the 50-over format too.