India U19 star Yashasvi Jaiswal credits his mentor for bagging World Cup Player of the Series award

Yashasvi Jaiswal, India U19’s batting sensation, has lavished praises on his mentor for his exploits during the World Cup in South Africa. In six matches, the Mumbai southpaw amassed 400 runs at a mind-blowing average of 133.33 to go with a century and four half-centuries. The stupendous level of consistency with the bat in hand also earned him the Player of the Series award.

India lost the Final to Bangladesh, but Jaiswal managed to leave his imprints. Barring the game versus Japan where he stayed unbeaten on 29, the Young Turk managed 50-plus scores on every other occasion. His century against Pakistan guided the Boys in Blue to the Final. Jaiswal said that his mentor motivated him throughout and also taught the art of playing on bouncy wickets.

“Jwala Sir had told me that you have to go and bag the player of the series award. We practiced a lot on how to play on bouncy tracks. We practiced on how to play short-balls and that helped me,” Jaiswal was quoted as saying in Times Now.

I batted on astro-turf wickets: Yashasvi Jaiswal

Prior to the tournament in challenging conditions, Jaiswal honed his skills on astro-turf strips to get himself prepared. He also sounded satisfied for staying in the middle after getting his eyes in.

“I was either playing or leaving short-balls. There is bounce on astro-turf wickets like how it is there, so I batted on astro-turf wickets and that worked. It was a very good experience, to play in a different country, where the wickets were also different. And I enjoyed batting as I was batting for longer duration in the games as well as in the nets,” Jaiswal said.

“I learnt a lot while playing and also learnt on how to deal with pressure, as pressure was there during most of the games,” he added. Jaiswal’s opening partner Divyansh Saxena also had a decent tournament, scoring 150 runs in five matches at an average of 50.

The 18-year-old Jaiswal already has experience of one first-class and 13 List A games for Mumbai. At the age of 17, he also became the youngest to smash a double century in the 50-overs format during the previous Vijay Hazare Trophy.