India’s Perth Test hero Yashasvi Jaiswal, who hit a stunning century on Sunday, rose to fame after being homeless and selling snacks on the streets to fund his cricketing ambitions.
The 22-year-old opening batsman made an overnight 90 for 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 reached 171 last year on debut against the West Indies, off a grueling total of 387 deliveries in over eight hours on the Dominica pitch.
He picked up 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 performance in the Indian Premier League last year.
He was signed by Rajasthan Royals in the 2019 IPL auction and last season was one half of a fearsome opening pair with England’s white-ball captain Jos Buttler, amassing 625 runs at a rate of hits over 163.
After his latest exploits, former India captain Sunil Gavaskar said it was all the more special because he had “come the hard way”.
The big hitter called Jaiswal a “wonderful role model for those who come from villages to cities”, showing that if “you work hard, you are dedicated, you have a dream, you can achieve it”.
“This boy is a man,” Gavaskar said on his commentary show.
English commentator Mark Nicholas said: “This innings will announce him as a star truly born.”
Jaiswal dreamed of playing for India and moved to the financial capital Mumbai at just 11 years old, leaving his parents at home in their village.
“I used to sleep in a dairy and then stay at my uncle’s house, but it wasn’t big enough and he asked me to find another place,” Jaiswal told AFP in a 2020 interview.
“I then started living in a tent near Azad Maidan,” a field considered the birthplace of cricket in India, “and played cricket there during the day.”
In the meantime, he sold popular street snacks to earn enough money to pay for his own meals, supplementing a side hustle in cricket scoring and ball retrieving at club matches.
Jaiswal eventually won a place in the Mumbai State team in 2019 and became the youngest batsman, at 17 years and 292 days old, to score a domestic double century in one day.
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