From Bhadohi to Roseau, India’s latest opening sensation Yashasvi Jaiswal hums a happy tune

Yashasvi Jaiswal wasn’t born when Titanic was released.

James Cameron’s classic remains one of the most beloved films of our time, 26 years after it hit theaters and garnered a record 14 Oscar nominations. One of the highlights of Titanic was the song “My Heart Will Go On”. The song, sung by Celine Dion, was the film’s theme song and is one of the best-selling singles of all time.

It’s Jaiswal’s favorite song (that it was featured on his favorite actress, Kate Winslet, is an added attraction). Hearing the song makes him happy.

He particularly likes the opening lines of the song: “Every night in my dream/ I see you, I feel you”. He often hums these lines.

He must have done it a number of times, watching from afar the bright lights at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on a night of an IPL game or an international match. As he listened to the noise from the stadium, he imagined that one day the fans there would be cheering him on.

That dream came true in spectacular fashion a few months ago when he hit 124 from 62 balls for the Rajasthan Royals against the Mumbai Indians. That was his first hundred in the IPL, something he must have always looked forward to since being picked by the royals for Rs. 2.4 crore, 12 times its base price.

He was only 17 at the time and the coronavirus outbreak was just weeks away. Due to the pandemic, the IPL 2020 was held in the United Arab Emirates.

Ahead of the tournament, Jaiswal sounded understandably excited as he spoke to this correspondent from Dubai on the phone. “Being part of the IPL is an incredible feeling,” he said. “I’ve already learned how different the senior level is from the junior level.”

His transition to senior cricket was smooth. He had scored a double hundred for Mumbai against Jharkhand at the 2019 Vijay Hazare Trophy tournament in Bengaluru. His 154-ball 203 made him, at 17 years and 292 days, the world’s youngest double-centurion in List-A cricket, in which only six other Indians before him had scored a double-hundred. He had broken a record that had stood for 44 years by three years (the previous record belonged to South African Alan Barrow).

A few days ago, Jaiswal had an opportunity to snatch an even more significant record from another South African. In the Dominican capital of Roseau, he seemed good enough for a double hundred when Alzarri Joseph grabbed a thin outside advantage.

Jaiswal thus fell 171 points behind. At a slow stretch where patience and technique would always richly reward a batsman, especially against a West Indies attack that looked as different as can be from the intimidating attacks of the 1980s and 1990s, he could have broken Jacques’ record Rudolph became the youngest player to hit a Test double hundred on debut. The South African was 21 years and 355 days old when he recorded an unbeaten 222 against Bangladesh in Chattogram in 2003 (it should be noted that he had played at Centurion in the ‘unofficial’ Test in 2001 after ball manipulation and excessive appeals). .

Jaiswal may not have broken Rudolph’s record, but he has nevertheless broken several as he became the 17th Indian to score 100 points in the Test debut. Perhaps the most significant of his records is that it is the longest innings by an Indian in a Test debut. He struggled for 501 minutes and hit 387 balls.

This shows his determination and temperament. It also shows he’s fit for the rigors of Test match cricket (even in these exciting times of Bazball). And remember, he’s a young man who loves his job, blessed with a range of shots and overwhelming confidence (he holds the record for the fastest IPL 50 – at 13 balls).

The fact that he adjusted appropriately in his first innings – which also earned him the Player of the Match award – bodes well for the future of Indian Test cricket. And it certainly won’t hurt to have a good left-hander at the front.

Jaiswal’s style is similar to what is probably India’s best left-hander – Sourav Ganguly. No wonder his name is Baby Ganguly.

Unlike Ganguly, who was born into a wealthy family in Kolkata, life for Jaiswal was not easy. At the age of 12 he left his village in Bhadohi (Uttar Pradesh) for Mumbai, where he had to sleep in a tent and sell snacks to earn some money. He had to get up early to practice before the more privileged boys arrived and spent the night practicing in the shade.

Mumbai’s tradition of making them young saw him play for the senior team and caused a stir with his sensational performance at the 2019 Vijay Hazare tournament. The following year he was top scorer and player of the tournament at the Under-19 World Cup in South Africa.

Runs of every format continued to flow from his racquet. He had three consecutive hundreds in the 2021-22 Ranji Trophy, managed 497 runs averaging 99.40 in the Duleep Trophy last year and previously hit a double hundred hundred for the rest of India’s year in the Irani Trophy match against Madhya Pradesh. He took that form in the IPL, where he hit 625 runs with an average of 48.07 and a batting average of 163.61.

Now it was up to the national voters. You did the right thing: you picked a player when he was in top form. Then the West Indies management team did the right thing too, finding him first place and dropping Shubman Gill.

Now Jaiswal had to do the right thing too. He did it, didn’t he?