Practising on astro-turf pitches before embarking on the journey to South Africa under the guidance of his coach and mentor Jwala Singh helped Yashasvi Jaiswal dominate bowling attacks throughout the just-concluded U-19 World Cup, said the youngster himself, having returned home after bagging the "Player-of-the-Tournament" award in the rainbow nation. 

Jaiswal scored 400 runs in six innings, including four half-centuries and a  special unbeaten hundred in the semi-final victory over arch-rivals Pakistan. 

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"Jwala Sir had told me that you have to go and bad the player of the series award. We practiced a lot on how to play on bouncy tracks. We practiced on how to play short-balls and that helped me,” Jaiswal told PTI. 

"I was either playing or leaving short-balls. There is bounce on astro-turf wickets like how it is there, so I batted on astro-turf wickets and that worked."

Enjoying such a prolific run at the biggest event of youth level cricket in foreign conditions has boosted Jaiswal's confidence a lot as he now strives to make a swift progression towards senior cricket, hoping to become a regular member of the Mumbai Ranji Trophy team. 

"It was a very good experience, to play in a different country, where the wickets were also different," the left-hander said. "And I enjoyed batting as I was batting for longer duration in the games as well as in the nets." 

"I learnt a lot while playing and also learnt on how to deal with pressure, as pressure was there during most of the games."

Apart from Jwala, Yashasvi, who has had quite a storied journey of struggle reaching here, also has a lot to thank junior chief selector Ashish Kapoor. 

“All the U-19 selectors helped me a lot," he said. "It was because of Ashish Kapoor sir that I was able to open. I would like to thank all the selectors and coaches."

(Inputs from PTI)