Ranji Trophy: Belief carries comeback kid Jaiswal

'Working (hard) every day is important, because then I'll become consistent. When I was dropped from playing XI in IPL, every day I was working with Zubin sir (Zubin Bharucha, director of cricket at RR) and training really well with support staff like Raj Muni and Yogesh. Zubin sir was keeping me motivated all the time.'

He is all of 20 but Yashasvi Jaiswal knows the art of making a strong comeback statement, like he did for Rajasthan Royals in the IPL last month and more recently in the Ranji Trophy knock-outs for Mumbai this month.

Having scored a hundred in the quarter-finals and two tons in the semi-finals, Jaiswal was looking set for his fourth century before Madhya Pradesh seamer Anubhav Agarwal snapped him for 78 in the opening day of the Rani Trophy final in Bengaluru on Wednesday.

"Yes, I'm a bit sad about it, but this is cricket. You have to experience both the good and the bad (part), and that's something I've learnt by now," Jaiswal said after the day's play.      

"Because in cricket, things won't go how you want (things to go), but I'm trying my best to improve myself as a cricketer and as a human being," he said.

Jaiswal, during the IPL, was dropped after the first few games but made a comeback in the Royals' playing XI in the second half, scoring couple of impressive half-tons.

Ditto in Ranji Trophy, where he was dropped at the group league stage and then came back with a bang from the quarter-finals, scoring nearly 500 runs.

"The same thing happened there in IPL. I got three games, was out, and came back (into the side) after seven games. But through all these gaps, I had it in my mind that I need to work hard and be disciplined all the time," Jaiswal said.

He said during a lean phase, it is only hard work that pays off.

"Working (hard) every day is important, because then I'll become consistent. When I was dropped from playing XI in IPL, every day I was working with Zubin sir (Zubin Bharucha, director of cricket at RR) and training really well with support staff like Raj Muni and Yogesh. Zubin sir was keeping me motivated all the time," he spoke with loads of gratitude.

While a Ranji Trophy final is a very different game from other matches, the stylish left-hander said he has strong belief of doing well in pressure situations.

"A final is different because you've a very different mindset. People who are close to me say so much stuff, because they want me to do well. They put pressure, of course. To be honest, I'm happy to take that pressure, I enjoy it," the affable youngster said.

"I go out with that mindset that I will do it. I trust and believe in myself, that whenever I go out there, I'll do well," he said in a confident tone.

That he is a good student of the game was evident when he spoke about how he and his skipper Prithvi Shaw understood the trick by MP team, which showed that they would start with a pacer and then brought in left-arm spinner Kumar Kartikeya.

"Of course, we knew that he (Kartikeya) would bowl the first over. They were playing some trick, like trying some stuff to mentally disintegrate us, which I've seen them doing earlier," he said.

"For example, the ’keeper goes far back and the fast bowler walks up to the run-up but all along we knew that Kartikeya is going to bowl because Shaw bhai told me about it. We were literally ready.

"We didn't want them to think that we were not prepared. We had prepared enough. Whoever was going to bowl, I didn't care. I just needed to watch the ball," Jaiswal said.