Hyderabad: 17-year-old Yashasvi Jaiswal became the youngest buy in the IPL 2020 auction when Rajasthan Royals bought the batsman for Rs 2.40 crore on Thursday.
Jaiswal has never played in the IPL and his well-documented struggles include living in a tent and selling panipuri after coming to Mumbai from his native Uttar Pradesh as an 11-year-old.
The younger of two sons to a small-time shopkeeper in Bhadohi in Uttar Pradesh, Yashasvi didn't even have a home in Mumbai and for three years he used to sleep in a tent adjacent to the Muslim United SC ground at Azad Maidan till his mentor-coach Jwala Singh took him under his wing and became his guardian.
- The young prospect Yashasvi Jaiswal stole the spotlight in the year 2015 when he scored an unbeaten 319 and continued to impressed everyone with the ball as he took 13/99 in a Giles Shield match. His all-round record in school level cricket was felicitated by the Limca Book of Records.
He had to sell pani-puri during the Ram Leela in Azad Maidan and help sell fruits to survive, but there were still days when he would go to sleep on an empty stomach.
However, his desire to make a name for himself in cricket kept him going and now, he has certainly started living his dream.
His is the quintessential rags to riches tale of Thursday’s IPL auction and Yashasvi, whose base price was Rs 20 lakhs, considers the whopping multi-crore deal with Rajasthan Royals a once-in-a-lifetime learning opportunity.
“I am very happy. It’s a great opportunity for me to learn. I want to learn as much as I can during my time with Rajasthan Royals. It is a platform for me to make a name for myself,” Jaiswal said after getting a higher bid than his Under-19 captain Priyam Garg (Rs 1.90 crore, Sunrisers Hyderabad).
The youngster has also been in stellar form, playing for Mumbai in the domestic season.
- In the prestigious Vijay Hazare Trophy in September-October, he struck 203 off 154 balls, including 12 sixes and 17 boundaries, to become the youngest batsman to hit a double hundred in List A cricket.
- He tallied an impressive 564 runs at an average of 112.80 with three hundreds and a fifty during this season.
Jaiswal is currently an under-19 World Cup-bound batsman, ready to represent India in the youth World Cup in South Africa, which begins on January 17.
