Unfulfilled Dream From 1995 Is Coming True Through Yashasvi Jaiswal's Test Call-Up, Says His Coach Jwala Singh

Unfulfilled Dream From 1995 Is Coming True Through Yashasvi Jaiswal's Test Call-Up, Says His Coach J (Image Source: Google)

Before heading to London from Mumbai on Friday, coach Jwala Singh met with his student, the young left-handed opener, Yashasvi Jaiswal, in the morning. Upon landing at Heathrow Airport hours later, Jwala turned on his phone only to see a multitude of notifications with many calls and messages flooding the screen.

Those notifications were filled with congratulatory messages -- of Jaiswal earning a maiden call-up to the Indian Test side for the two-match tour of West Indies in July, leaving Jwala incredibly elated.

"When I met Yashasvi before leaving for London, neither of us had the slightest hint about the Test team selection announcement. But on seeing him being selected for the West Indies tour, I felt very good, happy and very, very proud," said Jwala in a free-wheeling chat with IANS.

In a way, Jaiswal;s call-up to the Test team has also meant that Jwala is living a dream which he couldn't fulfill.

"On arriving in Mumbai in 1995 as a youngster, I had a dream -- to play cricket for India. I put in lots of hard work, but unfortunately, due to injuries, that didn't happen. But when I saw Yashasvi as a young boy in 2013, I got the idea that the dream I couldn't achieve, I will live that through somebody else and that was him," he recalled.

Jwala still remembers the day -- December 17, 2013, when he first saw Jaiswal as a young boy, who was struggling to survive and was staying in a tent of a Mumbai maidan. Singh was reminded of his own passion when he arrived in Mumbai from Gorakhpur in 1995 when he saw young Jaiswal's enthusiasm for the game.

"It was very difficult to foresee what he would become in the future. But the most important thing was, the junoon (passion) and paagalpan (madness) of him matched with mine and I took him in without thinking much. I came to Mumbai with a passion and madness for the game. Yashasvi had the exact same passion and madness for the game," said Jwala.

In Jaiswal, Jwala saw a glimpse of himself and he manifested to live a dream as a coach which he couldn't achieve as a player.

"Yashasvi was neither my brother nor a family relative and I had never known him before. But on seeing him in 2013, there came a madness in me to groom him. When I left playing, I was subjected to lots of taunts from family and people. The comments varied from 'you've destroyed your life by coming to Mumbai and you should return to your village'," he said.

Jwala likens his current state of mind to that of Shahrukh Khan's character in 'Chak de India', who went through a similar journey of downfall as a player before achieving World Cup success as a coach.  

"There were scenes in the movie where he got many taunts and was hugely discouraged. Something similar happened in my life too, when peers alongside and before me made it to the Indian team. I used to feel ashamed that they are still active cricketers while I was into coaching. People made fun of me by saying, 'In the age you are supposed to play, you have taken to coaching'.

I used to feel bad that I made 100% efforts and never compromised on anything to play as a cricketer, but still couldn't achieve what I wanted. I had taken a pledge then that I will coach someone and groom him as an Indian cricketer, and in that process, I found Yashasvi," said Jwala.  

His family was scared over what if someone filed a complaint against Jwala or sent him behind bars for keeping young Yashasvi at home, but he was undeterred.

"I had a madness to follow, which was to groom Yashasvi and prove to others as well. Today, I feel very proud that I stayed true to my vow and people who taunted me previously are now congratulating me. I feel very, very proud and happy to have completed a phase of this journey with Yashasvi," he said further.

Jwala and Jaiswal joined forces in a joint venture, driven by their passion and ambition to make it to the Indian team, and established various step-by-step plans to execute the plan.

"Both of us worked hard, and no one came in the way of planning we did. I provided him with everything which was needed to grow as a cricketer in every aspect. Plus, he had the will of getting things done, and that willpower, along with trust, plus hard work done in the past, is paying off. I feel God has a way to reward that and I believe that all those combinations came together to get Yashasvi selected in the Indian Test team," the coach said.

"I made it clear to him that the next ten years will be dedicated to the game. Whenever you plan for things, you usually end up successful and I felt very proud of myself that the vision established 10 years ago has been achieved," he added.

That relentless hard work translated into prolific performances in school cricket competitions. Coupled with an insatiable hunger for runs and being mentally strong paved the way for Yashasvi to enter Mumbai junior set-up, followed by India U19 team and taking the Player of the Tournament award in the 2020 Men’s U19 World Cup.

In between, he scored a whirlwind double century for Mumbai against Jharkhand in 2019/20 Vijay Hazare Trophy, which made him the youngest double centurion in the history of List A cricket. But Jaiswal's journey hit a rough patch when his maiden IPL season for Rajasthan Royals in 2020 didn't go as per plan.

Jwala attributed Jaiswal's lack of success in IPL 2020 to Covid-19 restrictions and batter's shoulder injury, but the youngster was still inconsolable.

"When he used to play junior cricket, I used to tell him to take time and strive to play long innings. The structure of Indian cricket is such that you need to score many runs in age-group cricket to move ahead. In Yashasvi’s case, he made runs all around U16, U19 and U23 matches. After he came back from the tournament, he started crying and said, 'My career is ruined and what will happen next?’ and looked insecure'," recalled Singh.

Jwala sensed that time was ripe to make a change for the better in Yashasvi's batting style and the mission to transform him into an aggressive batter began.

"I made him practice on cement pitches with plastic balls and in grounds with 80m boundaries, as well as hitting attacking sixes. I also told him he must play shots all over the park instead of playing towards one side. I drilled into him that, 'If you want to hit hard against bowlers of good levels, then you have to play through the gaps and all over the park too'," he said.

By adopting an aggressive batting style, Jaiswal is now hitting bowlers all over the park with ease, regardless of the circumstances, conditions, bowlers, and format.

In the 2022-23 Ranji Trophy, Jaiswal scored 315 runs in five matches, averaging 45, including hitting a fifty and a century. He went on to make 213 and 144 in the Irani Cup for the Rest of India against Madhya Pradesh. His aggregate of 357 runs in the match is also the most-ever for a batter in the competition.

Add to it, two centuries for West Zone in Duleep Trophy, where he was the leading run-scorer with 497 runs, as well as amassing 625 runs in 14 innings of IPL 2023 for Rajasthan Royals, including a century and five fifties, and a century against Bangladesh A, all of which make for an astonishing run-making spree from Yashasvi.

"If you see, he has fetched runs via good cricketing shots like cut, pull, sweep and straight drive. When the work to make him an aggressive player began after IPL 2020, Yashasvi would say, "Sir, my whole game will be affected and I won’t be able to play well against red-ball’. I told him, ‘No, this is the way we have to take in order to move forward'.

During that phase, I continuously used to tell him, 'The pressure which is on the batter while facing the ball, that same pressure is also on the bowler. Whosoever is the first to put the other under pressure, that person will emerge triumphant in today's cricketing world'. Teaching him about embracing that aggressive mindset is yielding results, which everyone is now witnessing," points out Jwala.

With murmurs over Jaiswal potentially getting a chance to bat at number three against West Indies in Cheteshwar Pujara's absence, Jwala thinks it doesn't matter where the youngster will get to bat as a batter's job is to make runs and take the side to victory.

"The team management, with Rahul Dravid as head coach, must have done very good planning and if he gets the number three position, he will perform well. In the red-ball U19 and U23 games, he has played at number three and made lots of runs. What’s important is he remains in the team and whatever opportunities he gets, performs in them and makes the country proud," Jaiswal's coach said.

Jwala, also Jaiswal's legal guardian, is confident that the future holds great promise for the youngster, leading to many more days of receiving congratulatory messages on his phone screen, similar to what happened on June 23, 2023.

"The things which I didn't get, I put all those things into Yashasvi and left no stone unturned in providing him everything. Even my family stepped in to give him love and affection, which didn't make him feel like he was missing his own family," said Jwala.

"Many say that I am his coach, but I said to them, as also to Yashasvi, 'I am not just a coach as I fulfilled all his needs from A to Z to the best of my abilities'. I used to counsel him for hours at my home and then took him to meet many people.

I feel God is so kind that a day like this has arrived. Our job is to work hard and the result will be given by God based on honest efforts put day in and day out," he concluded.