When Yashbardhan Chauhan received his maiden India Under-19 call-up for the Sri Lanka tour, he carried with him the confidence gained from several big knocks played across various age-group cricket. However, the 17-year-old from Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh, had a tough time. In his first three one-day innings, he managed scores of only 31, 6, and 6.
It was a challenging time for Chauhan, as he was not only the opener but also the captain for the multi-day format. But his confidence remained unshaken despite early setbacks. He told head coach Yere Goud that he wanted to bat in the middle order. By the time he returned from Sri Lanka, Chauhan had a half-century under his belt and a renewed sense of confidence.
"The conditions in Sri Lanka were completely new to me," Chauhan told Cricinfo before the U-19 Asia Cup in Oman. "Being a vegetarian, my food options were quite limited, and it also took me some time to adjust to the local weather. In age-group cricket, I had always played as an opener, but I felt I could perform well in the middle order too. So when the runs weren't coming, I spoke to Goud sir, and he gave me the opportunity to bat in the middle order."
Chauhan carried this form into the home series against Australia U-19. In four innings across two one-dayers and two multi-day games, he scored one century and three half-centuries.
Chauhan is used to playing big knocks in age-group cricket. In 2019-20, at the age of nine, he scored 137 in the Under-13 AW Kanmadikar Trophy, an inter-divisional tournament in Madhya Pradesh. In the same age group, in 2021-22, he drew widespread attention by scoring 425, 235 and 391 for Chambal.
When Madhya Pradesh won the U-19 Cooch Behar Trophy for the first time in 2025-26, Chauhan was the Player of the Tournament for his all-round performance. Over eight multi-day matches, he took 57 wickets with his offspin and scored 550 runs.
Following that, he was called up for the U-23 CK Nayudu Trophy. He skipped his Class 12 exams to participate. A few months later, he was picked for India U-19 for the aforementioned Sri Lanka tour.
Lovekesh Chaudhary, Chauhan's childhood coach who runs the Tansen Cricket Academy in Gwalior, believes that his protégé has yet to fully showcase his batting potential.
"Chauhan's father brought him to me when he was six," Chaudhary told Cricinfo. "He was an exceptionally good batter for his age. Initially, he was a bit weak on the leg side, so I worked specifically on his flicks and glances. He has always been a quick learner, which allowed him to improve rapidly."
Chauhan's father, Anami Singh, is a businessman in Gwalior who played club cricket back in the day. When he saw five-year-old Chauhan shadow-playing traditional cricket shots, it reignited a long dormant ambition.
"I had once thought, long ago, that if I ever had a child, I would certainly try to make them a cricketer," he said. "Over time, this desire had faded into the background, but seeing Yash practising those shots brought that unfulfilled dream back to life. I immediately took him to the Tansen Cricket Academy."
To nurture Chauhan's talent, his father would take him to various cities and states from a very young age, seeking opportunities for him to compete in age groups older than his own.
In 2021-22, shortly after the Covid-19 pandemic, Anami's financial situation was not good. When Chauhan asked for an English willow, he borrowed money from acquaintances, travelled to Meerut and bought the bat.
"With the same bat, Yash scored a thousand runs across three matches in U-13 cricket, leaving it in a condition where it could no longer be used. We still have that bat. It was the only thing he ever asked of me; he has never been a demanding child. In fact, he used to carry a basic Samsung keypad phone. He had decided that he would buy himself a smartphone once he was selected for the Indian team."
Vijay Prakash Sharma, the head cricket coach at the Scindia School, where Chauhan is a student, remembers an aggressive side of him - when he started arguing with an umpire after being given out.
"I told him he wouldn't be allowed to play on the school ground for three months," Vijay said. "When his father found out, he came to me, asking me to forgive the boy. I told him, 'If you only want to see him play within Gwalior, that's fine, but if you want to see him play for India, then let me do what I'm doing.'"
When Chauhan was struggling in Sri Lanka, he turned to Vijay.
"In Sri Lanka, the pitches were slow, which made it difficult for him to play with his natural flow. I advised him to use a heavier bat; that way, when the ball held up on the pitch, the extra weight of the bat would ensure contact happened just a fraction later."
Chauhan decided to play with a heavier bat and scored 78 off 89 balls in the second multi-day game.
The Scindia School is a prestigious school, and Chauhan's family lacked the financial means to afford his enrollment. But he became one of the first students to receive a cricket scholarship when the school introduced the program. Once barred from playing cricket on the school ground, he led his school to victory in the 2024 HH Maharaja Madhav Rao Scindia Memorial inter-school tournament by scoring a century in the final.
He surely knows how to overcome setbacks.
This story was first published on the Cricinfo Hindi website