'We could see the hunger in him' - Dilip Vengsarkar recalls Yashasvi Jaiswal's early days in professional cricket

India’s young batting sensation Yashasvi Jaiswal has been making giant strides in his international career ever since his debut against West Indies in July 2024. The southpaw scored a brilliant hundred on his debut as he played a magnificent innings of 171 (387). The 22-year-old recently became the third youngest batter to score a double hundred for India during the second Test against England in Visakhapatnam.

Recently, former India captain Dilip Vengasarkar shared a lesser-known story from Jaiswal’s initial days and revealed that the youngster showed hunger to score at a young age. He further expressed happiness seeing his meteoric rise at the international level.

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"I had taken him to England when he was 14 or 15 years of age, and as we all know, he comes from a very humble background. In England, he scored in every match and we could see the hunger in him. I knew this kid would go places with the talent he possessed. He then went on to play for India U-19 and scored plenty of runs in the World Cup, which supported his cause by getting picked by the IPL franchise, Rajasthan Royals. I am extremely happy about him and now he is the captain of Dadar Union as well, where I played for 25 years," Vengsarkar told RevSportz.

Notably, Jaiswal is the leading run-scorer of the ongoing Test series against England with 321 runs to his name from four innings at an average of 80.45 with one hundred and one fifty to his name. He scored a magnificent 209 in the first innings in Visakhapatnam when other players failed to surpass the 34-run mark.

Further speaking ahead, the 67-year-old talked at length about talented youngsters such as Rajat Patidar and Sarfaraz Khan and stated that the latter has got the opportunity at the right time.

"There are a lot of good players all around. I think [Rajat] Patidar is good and I watched him play around four years ago. However, he did not get an opportunity back then. Sarfaraz [Khan] is good as well, but he also has not gotten the opportunity at the right time. I think the timing has to be precise in these situations – provide opportunity to these youngsters when they are in great form. If you lose that time, then the player might lose his form, interest, or fitness," added Vengsarkar.

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Sarfaraz earned his maiden call-up ahead of second Test

Notably, Sarfaraz earned his maiden India call-up ahead of the second Test replacing the injured KL Rahul. However, he failed to make his debut as Madhya Pradesh batter Rajat Patidar was chosen ahead of him.  With uncertainty over Virat Kohli’s return in the remaining series, Sarfaraz would hope to get a place in the XI in the remaining three Tests.