Yashasvi Jaiswal's Fearless Performance Leads India to Three-Format Victory and Keeps Australia Awake at Night

Yashasvi Jaiswal embodies the boldness and fearlessness of youth in a way that is truly inspiring. This cliché notion of youthful fearlessness is given new life through his actions and accomplishments. Jaiswal's confidence and belief in himself serve as a reminder of the incredible potential that lies within young individuals.

At 22, Jaiswal is just about finding his feet in international cricket. When lads his age are wondering what course to pursue after graduation, or whether it is more prudent to seek a job, the strapping left-hander originally from Suriyawan in Uttar Pradesh is busy making a name for himself in the world of cricket, with chutzpah and elan, with ferocity and grace.

International cricket has been a cup of tea for the young man, who is smart enough to understand that the tougher challenges lie ahead of him. And should he lose sight of that, should his focus waver, should his feet leave the ground, one can rest assured that the otherwise benevolent hand of Rohit Sharma will come down with a heavy thud.

Rohit has played an influential role in Jaiswal’s rocking start to sport at the highest level, but where Jaiswal is today is largely of his own making. His translocation from the anonymity of his village in Uttar Pradesh to the cricketing metropolis that is Mumbai has been well documented, as have been the hardships that he encountered in his journey towards playing the sport competitively. Rewards for his bloody-mindedness and his courage of conviction in chasing his dream have been swift in coming. Just 12 Tests young, Jaiswal boasts 1,217 runs at an average of 71.67, and his consistency is exemplified by the fact that he has scored at least a half-century in each of his last seven Tests.

The carping critics, and there will be several, if only for the sake of it, will point to his performances in the two Tests preceding the last seven and hang an asterisk against his name. Those two games came on decidedly sub-par surfaces in South Africa – the second of those Tests ended in an Indian win inside two days in Cape Town – and amid a sea of failures, Jaiswal too floundered, mustering a mere 50 runs in four innings. For now, that’s an aberration, given his displays in the three series either side of that Protean misadventure. The next three months will provide greater clarity on exactly where Jaiswal stands on the cricketing firmament.

A free-stroking batter who has shown himself to be a quick learner, Jaiswal belongs to the modern generation that doesn’t think twice about putting the bowler in his place, and putting the ball away to the boundary, even if it is the first over of a match. The good thing is that he doesn’t premeditate; his stillness at the crease until the ball leaves the bowler’s hand is a wonderful trait to possess, and because he watches the ball closely, he is able to dig into his wide reservoir of strokes to play each delivery on its merit. Seldom was that better illustrated than in the first innings in Kanpur on Monday when, in the hunt for speedy runs, even Rohit sacrificed grace and shape, but Jaiswal hardly put a foot wrong while blazing to 72 off just 51 deliveries.

Jaiswal is equally adept against pace and spin, facets that will test him seriously next month when India travel to Australia for their first five-Test series Down Under since 1991-92. Australia this winter, and England next summer, will ask questions of Jaiswal’s technique and temperament, indeed his character, that haven’t been posed previously. On the evidence of what one has seen thus far, there is no reason why he can’t come up with the right answers. Apart from the exceptional support group surrounding him, he has shown himself to be a strong-willed, mature individual all too aware that the fame and the money and the adulation is only an offshoot of his exploits on the cricket field.

In Australia, Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood and offie Nathan Lyon will test him with their enormous craft, seeking to use additional bounce as a telling weapon. Jaiswal is a terrific backfoot player and therefore shouldn’t find himself out of place. He loves the ball coming on to the bat, is excellent square of the wicket and will relish the value for runs the Australian grounds offer. Five Tests is a long time, though. If there are chinks in his armour – truth to tell, they aren’t starkly visible right now – they will be ruthlessly exploited. But if he gets off to a start, Jaiswal will set the tone for India because of how naturally quickly he scores. Mouth-watering, already.