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Young opener Yashasvi Jaiswal's adaptability between formats and temperament make him stand out among his peers at the highest level, believes his childhood coach Jwala Singh.
At 22 years and 36 days, Jaiswal on Saturday became the third youngest from the country after Vinod Kambli and Sunil Gavaskar to score a Test double ton. He smashed 19 fours and seven sixes to make 209 from 290 balls against England in the second Test at Visakhapatnam.
“If you see his junior cricket, like when he was playing for Mumbai under-16s, he scored a double hundred, (also for) Mumbai under-19s, (in the) Irani Cup, Duleep Trophy and Vijay Hazare (Trophy). He has the knack of playing long innings with his aggressive nature,” Jwala told PTI.
“He always puts pressure on the bowler because he keeps hitting the boundaries. This is how he has grown his cricket, his stroke-playing, his mindset. That is called adaptability.
“In T20 cricket, he plays (with) a different attitude. In Test cricket, he plays with a different approach. His adaptability and temperament is really different from the others and that makes him different from the other players."
‘Sir, my cricket career is over’
Jwala said having long batting sessions during the coronavirus pandemic-induced break turned things around for Jaiswal.
“When he came from the IPL (2021) in Dubai, he was very nervous and he cried over phone saying, ‘Sir, my cricket is over. I don't think I will play (any) higher'. At that time, he was not a very aggressive player. He used to just play some good shots,” Jwala recalled.
“I realised that the way he was playing his cricket is not going to help in the future. That time there was COVID in India. I took him to my native place at Gorakhpur and I used to tell him to hit as many sixes as he can in a big ground against the spinners,” he said.
Jwala said practising stroke-making with the plastic ball also helped Jaiswal a great deal.
“He used to do lot of plastic-ball practice for pull and cut shots and also sweep shot against the spinners. I think that (was the) time he started developing many strokes and that really helped him,” he said.
“That really was a foundation of the way he's playing his shots and he is very, very clear when he's hitting. It was that point when he really transformed himself from a junior or domestic player to a good top-level player,” Jwala added.
Jwala also recalled his message to Jaiswal who had his share of self-doubts in his formative journey.
“When he started playing cricket, there was a lot of competition in Mumbai. He used to say, ‘sir, how will I get a chance if this player or that player is playing?' I always used to tell him that we don't take anyone's place, we make our own place,” he said.
“'Don't think that you will play in someone else's place. You perform in a way that people say, ‘he is a very good player and he should play' and they will make place for you',” Jwala added.