‘Star is born’: From homeless to Test hero for India’s Jaiswal

India’s Yashasvi Jaiswal acknowledges the crowd as he leaves the field after losing his wicket on the third day of the first cricket test between Australia and India in Perth on November 24, 2024. (AP)

• Yashasvi Jaiswal, 22, put India in driving seat against Australia in Perth with stellar century 
• A young, homeless Jaiswal used to sell snacks on the streets to finance cricketing ambitions 

NEW DELHI: India’s Perth Test hero Yashasvi Jaiswal, who hit a stunning century on Sunday, rose to stardom from being homeless and selling snacks on the streets to finance his cricketing ambitions.
The 22-year-old opening batsman turned an overnight 90 into 161 on day three in the opening match of the five-Test series against Australia.
It was his fourth ton in his 15th Test.
He hit 171 last year on his debut against the West Indies, off a grueling 387 deliveries over more than eight hours at the crease in Dominica.
He smacked two double centuries against visiting England earlier this year.
The attacking left-handed batsman burst into the consciousness of cricket-mad India with a stellar showing in the Indian Premier League last year.
He was snapped up by Rajasthan Royals in the 2019 IPL auction and last season made one half of a fearsome opening pair with England’s white-ball captain Jos Buttler, amassing 625 runs with a strike rate of more than 163.
After his latest heroics, former India captain Sunil Gavaskar said it was all the more special because he had “come the hard way.”
The batting great called Jaiswal a “wonderful role model for those who come from the villages to the cities,” showing how if “you work hard, you’re dedicated, you have a dream, you can fulfil it.”
“This boy is a man,” Gavaskar said in his commentary show.
English commentator Mark Nicholas said:
 “This innings will announce him as a star is really born.”
Jaiswal dreamed of playing for India and moved to the financial capital Mumbai at just 11 years old, leaving his parents back home in their village.
“I used to sleep in a dairy and then stayed at my uncle’s place, but it wasn’t big enough and he asked me to find a different place,” Jaiswal told AFP in an interview in 2020.
“I then started to stay in a tent near Azad Maidan” — a field considered the birthplace of cricket in India — “and would play cricket there during the day.”
In between he sold popular street snacks to make enough money to pay for his own meals, supplementing a side hustle in cricket scoring and ball fetching in club games.
Jaiswal eventually won a place in the Mumbai state team in 2019 and became the youngest batsman, at 17 years and 292 days, to score a domestic one-day double century.