'Panipuri Story is Misguiding, He had no Poverty while staying with me': Yashasvi Jaiswal's coach Jwala Singh Exclusive on the Player's Struggle, India Vision and Panipuri Sensationalism

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Yashasvi Jaiswal has been a stellar performer since making his India debut last year. The southpaw scored a double-century in the second Test against England and played a huge part in the victory. In the third Test in Rajkot, Jaiswal doubled it up with yet another fine century in the second innings.

Ever since Jaiswal's emergence as an international player, the story behind him becoming a cricketer has been an enticing one. There have been reports of him not using social media during his formative years which helped him to concentrate on his game.

In that process, Yashasvi's childhood coach Jwala Singh played a huge part in it. Jwala Singh kept a teenage Yashasvi at his place and helped him build not only as a cricketer but as a human.

In an exclusive chat with MyKhel, Jwala Singh opened up about how he instilled the 'No Social Media' mantra in a young Yasahasvi's mind, the way he sacrificed for the player and shed new lights on some already unearthed stories-

No Social Media and the Eagle's Eye

The usage of social media can have a lot of detrimental effects, and Young Yashasvi Jaiswal got the message from his childhood coach Jwala Singh. In the interview, Singh opens up on how he instilled the mantra of no social media in Young Yashasvi.

"Yashasvi met me in December 2013 and he stayed with me till January 2022. During that time, I always advised him to not use any social media. I told him that, 'you have to perform in that way where mainstream media will come and show you rather you show yourself. If you do something extraordinary, they will talk about you.' I always used to tell him that a lot of unnecessary people would come into your life and that would distract you. Now he uses social media on some occasions, but when I used to look after him, I built his attitude like that," Jwala Singh said exclusively to MyKhel.

With the T20 World Cup on the way, Yashasvi Jaiswal may have Eagle's Eye on that as well. IPL 2024 is also coming up and a decent performance there may open the door for him in the World Cup, but his coach wants the player to stay in present instead of thinking too much about the future.

"I always tell him that staying in present is very important. If you do well today, there is tomorrow. I feel the habit which came early of age, is what Yashasvi has kept and that has helped him. I always told him to take One Tournament, One Game and One Ball at a time, breaking it into three parts. One thing at a time makes more sense and that was my mantra to him. He has developed some good habits and that is helping him to make runs. I hope he stays in present and be consistent in what he is doing," Yashasvi's coach added.

Staying Long rather than Short

The youngster has also learnt another important habit from his coach, which is to score big whenever he scores a century. Jaiswal scored 171 runs on his debut and then his second century is also another huge one when he scored 209 against England in the most recent match.

"When he (Yashasvi) was a kid, I always told him to score big to represent Mumbai. To play for Mumbai, a fifty or a century won't work, only a double hundred or a big century will catch the eye. That is my formula as a coach and I am happy that Yashasvi is thinking in that way. That is what I taught him, to think long rather than short."

The Panipuri Sensationalism

The coach also opened up on the emotional side of Yashasvi's rise and shed light on the struggle of the player.

The ever-present story of Yashasvi as a Panipuri seller has been indispensable in the player's career, but Jwala Singh says there was a lot of effort from him to make Yashasvi the player he has become, and the Panipuri sensationalism is misguiding.

"Sometimes I feel disappointed because people say he and his father was a panipuri seller. From December 17, 2013 to January 12, 2022 he stayed at my house with my family. There was nothing called poverty in his life at that time. Before that when he used to stay at a tent in Azad Maidan, he did some things back then. But his father was never a Panipuri seller."

"I am his legal guardian and have the Power of Attorney through his parents. He stayed with me as my son. So I get hurt when people say he used to sell Panipuri. This is absolutely false. He stayed at a good place in Santa Cruz. He got facilities and we invested a lot of time, money and energy on him. You need advanced facilities to be an Indian player, and he got that. So many people think they will sell panipuri and play for India, which is completely misguiding. So this sensationalism needs to be stopped," the coach said.

"He is playing because of his hard work, talent, destiny and god's grace. But when he stayed with me, there was no poverty in his life," Jwala Singh concluded, keeping the faith that his disciple will reach greater heights in the coming days.