Rajasthan Royals’ CEO Jake Lush McCrum on Thursday lavished praised on Yashavi Jaiswal saying the young batsman’s unrelenting work ethic has fueled his rise to stardom

About Jaiswal, he said, “We had spotted him a few years before we signed him, when he was not eligible for the auction yet. As much as we have an analytics capability that is unbelievably strong, there was not enough data to make a decision. So, we held a lot of trials with him.
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“The first ball he faced, he stepped across and scooped the fast bowler bowling 135. That sort of fearlessness, that rawness, that drive was incredibly impressive and so let’s just say we are not surprised with where Yashasvi has gotten to.”

McCrum also shed light on the efforts deployed behind the scenes towards developing a once in a generation talent like Jaiswal. “

‘He had to undergo a cultural transformation, because when you’re a young kid who’s been on the maidans, you have to only focus on yourself, and so he came from that setting to a team environment.”

With the Rajasthan Royals’ commitment to player success extending beyond field skills, “We took him (Jaiswal) to the UK. We got him to spend time with business leaders within our UK tech entrepreneurial ecosystem. We took him to different academies. We gave him exposure just going on a boat in Small things like that just opened his eyes to the broader world and made him see the bigger picture and how big the ecosystem supporting him is and how much he’s giving back to it as well. And so, you see that maturity building.”

However, McCrum opined the primary reason for Jaiswal’s success lay in his approach to the game. “The biggest reason for his success is his hunger, his drive, his work ethic. He hits more balls than any player. He trains harder than any player, and that’s the sort of instinct that he’s got, which has been so amazing to watch.

With the mega auction on the horizon, McCrum shed light on their approach and strategy for auctions. “It’s a fascinating couple of days. There are not many occurrences where you’re spending $10 million on X number of assets in that short time, and it can have such a variable impact on your next three seasons he said.

That’s why we’ve invested heavily in analytics he added

“We hired a guy…Michael Italiano who had been working with Red Bull in F1….he could bring all those learnings in to the Royals….Because he understands how the Athlete Performance Center of Red Bull works, because he has seen all those elements being implemented in F1, he can bring across the best to IPL” he added