CHENNAI: A breakthrough 2019. A maiden IPL contract worth Rs 2.4 crore next year. Then a pandemic happens. You’re stuck at the epicentre, and your fast-rising career trajectory is plonked on the backburner. Tough times indeed, especially for an 18-year-old.
No wonder Yashasvi Jaiswal — confined to his mentor Jwala Singh’s Santa Cruz residence in Mumbai — is turning to The Song of God for inspiration.
“These are things you can’t control,” says the southpaw. “So Jwala sir is using Bhagavad Gita to teach the nuances of life. How to make the right choices, behave with others. I watch videos, read the literature Jwala sir prescribes for me, and then make notes. He reads them and assesses my progress. He’s also making me meditate, which has been of great help.”
It isn’t as if spirituality is the only avenue that Yashasvi is using to tide over days. The Mumbai opener is still keeping in touch with the game, courtesy a bit of help being given to him by his future IPL franchise.
“John Gloster (Rajasthan Royals physiotherapist) has been in touch with him,” explains Jwala. “He’s been giving routines that Yashasvi sticks to. We bought some fitness equipment before everything was shut. So he’s been keeping his training — strength and loop-band exercises — going. Since he’s recovering from a shoulder strain, we’ve been going easy on shadow-practice. But Yashasvi and I have been working on improving a few aspects of his technique, his back-foot punch in particular.”
While these ways of utilising time is far removed from what your average Indian millennial has been up to over the past two months, the youngster from Bhadovi (Uttar Pradesh) too has been indulging in a few things that will resonate with the latter.
Cooking. Making sketches. Bingeing on everything that’s on Amazon and the usual daily routine of pretty much all of the nation’s youth these days.
“We still haven’t gotten around to Money Heist,” remarks Yashasvi. “But Jwala sir did like the vegetable curry I made a few days ago. Since you know that you have all the 24 hours of the day to do whatever you want to, it is a little difficult to maintain discipline. But we do what we can. Apart from that, these small things and the joy you get from them help you get through to the next day.”
“We just need to stay in, obey the government’s rules, and do whatever we can to help others out. Even when Jwala sir and I stepped out yesterday (Sunday) to buy rations, we helped out groundsmen (and other staff, 40 of them in total) at Air India Sports Club (Santa Cruz) by giving them whatever we could. Instead of setting plans for the long term, it’s best to keep putting one foot forward and go on in such times.”