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Among the many maidans that are dotted around the city of Mumbai, one of the more famous is Azad Maidan. In 2013 one aspirant who wanted to make it big like countless others, would be at Azad Maidan literally every moment of the day and night.

He was working hard, but not just at cricket. He practised, or played, in the day-time. Come evening, he would help sell pani puri [a popular Indian snack, often sold on streets] at the ground. In the night, he would sleep in one of the groundsmen's tents.

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That was a routine day for Yashasvi Jaiswal, then aged 11, who had come to Mumbai to pursue his cricketing dream. Six years later, the 17-year-old Jaiswal has become the youngest to smash a double-century in the 50-over Vijay Hazare Trophy, with 203 off 154 balls for Mumbai against Jharkhand. He is only the third player to hit a double-hundred in the competition, but Jaiswal's age, his background and his evident talent mark him out.

He is one of only four men in this year's competition to have aggregated over 500 runs. Each of the three above him have had the benefit of eight innings. Jaiswal has played just five - and scored 44, 113, 22, 122 and 203 in those five. He is just 11 runs shy of topping the run charts.

"Removing my helmet to acknowledge the landmark was a great feeling," Jaiswal told ESPNcricinfo after his double-century. "I hope I can keep doing well. This is only the start, I need to work more and go further.

"It was a very nice experience in the Vijay Hazare Trophy. I played with so many good players - Shreyas (Iyer) bhai, Surya(kumar Yadav) bhai. They have also taken really good care for me. I'm fortunate to have got such a nice atmosphere."

It's rare for Jaiswal to be even this effusive. He's taken the maxim 'I'll let my bat do the talking' to heart. So much that during a chat with ESPNcricinfo earlier in the tournament, he stopped midway through to wonder, "But why am I talking to you?" when describing his early struggles.

When the nonplussed reporter told him this was what generally happened during an interview, Jaiswal continued - but with the air of someone at the receiving end of a sales pitch for snake oil. He later explained that because this chat was happening mid-tournament, he was 'in the zone'. He might have come back to the hotel, but his mind hadn't left the ground.

As it turned out - evidenced by three centuries in his next four innings - he wasn't just being glib. He must have been 'in the zone' on Wednesday too, during his double? "Totally," he smiled.

Jaiswal's returns have also come on the back of great performances for age-group sides. In February this year, he made 173 against South Africa Under-19. In Under-19 one-dayers, he's averaged 53.16 in 13 matches, having passed fifty seven times, including a century against Sri Lanka Under-19 on his first tour.

The Jaiswal dream that has become reality happened because he came under the eyes of Jwala Singh, a coach in Mumbai, the city he moved to with his father at a young age. His father owns a small hardware shop and handles the cell-phone towers in the area, but his uncle lives in Mumbai.

"My parents live in a small town in Utter Pradesh, Bhadohi. It's near Varanasi," he said. "I had come to Mumbai very early with my father, who had work here. Once I came, I wanted to play. I used to play cricket earlier also in UP. Once we were in Mumbai, I was playing casually in Azad Maidan, and I liked it. I was interested only in cricket from an early age. I had thought that I want to play for Mumbai, because Sachin [Tendulkar] sir has played from Mumbai.

"My uncle's house wasn't so big that I could stay there long term, so I began living in a tent. This was the tent where the groundsmen who prepared the pitches in Azad Maidan stayed. I had to make food myself. I wouldn't get that much money from home also then. There was a stove there (in the tent). I would buy the raw items, cook them and eat."

"They [team-mates] still tease me (good-naturedly) about it [selling pani puris]. They would then too, but now that I've made it to the Mumbai team, they tease me even more." Yashasvi Jaiswal

Luckily, the school Jaiswal was going to was very close to Azad Maidan, and it was more or less understood that children joined that school to play cricket more than study.

"I kept playing in this fashion, and to earn more money I wou

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"I made him promise me before he left. I made him promise me that he will finish the World Cup with the most runs. If he gets it, I told him I'll gift him a car."

That's Jwala Singh, Yashasvi Jaiswal's coach, talking to ESPNcricinfo inside Chalet 26 of Potchefstroom's JB Marks Oval, watching his protege take a big step in fulfilling that promise, with a century against Pakistan in the semi-final on Tuesday.

Jaiswal, however, has no idea Singh is in South Africa. Jaiswal had categorically told Singh not to come for the tournament. But Singh couldn't resist, so he flew to Johannesburg and then drove to Potchefstroom as soon as India's semi-final spot was confirmed. He stays hidden all day, away from Jaiswal's line of vision, just in case his student gets distracted seeing his coach.

But Singh is more than Jaiswal's coach. Since Yashasvi's father handed over his son's responsibility to Singh in 2013, Yashasvi has lived with his coach in Mumbai. Effectively, Singh is the father-figure in Jaiswal's life. The love is on display as Singh gets up from his deck chair to clap as soon as Jaiswal scores the run that takes him past Sri Lanka's Ravindu Rasantha as the tournament's highest run-scorer.

The Jaiswal at the Under-19 World Cup, though, is very different from the Jaiswal in domestic cricket. Back in India, the left-hand batsman has built a reputation of being an attacking batsman. He has already struck double-hundreds twice in one-day cricket, once for Mumbai Under-19 and another for the senior Mumbai team. But at the World Cup, he has been restrained. Against Sri Lanka, his 59 came at a strike rate of 79.72. Against New Zealand, his 57 was scored at a strike rate of 74.02. Against Australia in the quarter-final, his strike rate was 75.60 while scoring 62.

"In Mumbai, he has senior cricketers around him, so he has the freedom to play his natural game. But here, he knows he's probably the most crucial part of the team's batting," Singh explains. "That's what makes Jaiswal special - his adaptability."

Fifteen minutes later, Jaiswal guides a short ball down to the fine-leg boundary to inch closer to his fourth fifty in five games. Singh chips in again, giving an insight into the teenager's brain.

"You see that shot? That's what sets him apart," he says. "Any other batsman and he would've gone for the pull. But Jaiswal knows that's not the right option when there's no run-rate pressure."

The reason Singh can analyse Jaiswal so well is because they've stayed under the same roof for five years now. Once upon a time, Jaiswal would live in the tents of Azad Maidan in Mumbai while beginning his cricketing journey, selling pani-puris, a street snack, after practice to stay financially afloat in India's most expensive city. But since Singh opened his home's doors for Jaiswal, they have practiced cricket in the daytime and chatted about everything else in the evenings.

"We have a rule at home. Every evening, he gives me a massage and tells me how his day went," Singh says. "Even if I forget to ask him for a massage, he will come to me. Because he's not had much of a childhood, he can get easily lured into things that teenagers do these days. So we discuss every aspect of his life. Everyday. But he is this headstrong because I've never given him anything on a platter. Even on the IPL auction day, I sent him to shop for groceries.

"Once in a generation can someone become a legend. Jaiswal has that in him, which is why it's so important to stay grounded. There are so many players who have played for India and done well. But legends don't come by every day. That's what I have tried to drill into him. He has now come to understand what all he can achieve if he keeps his head in the right place.

"This one time, he was the Player of the Series in a local tournament. He got a INR 10,000 voucher. He said he wanted to buy a cricket helmet, so I gave him permission to buy one.

"When he came back, he said, 'I've spent INR 3000 extra, can you give me that money please?' That was the first time I got angry at him. I snatched the helmet from him and said, '13000 for a helmet? That's ridiculous. You will wear this when you really deserve it.'

"I put the helmet on top of his almirah after that. So that he could see it every day. The day he made his Ranji debut, I personally handed that helmet over to him. That's the day I realised that whatever goal you give Jaiswal, he will fulfil it."

Singh, who was also Prithvi Shaw's coach from 2015 to 2018, says that he feels blessed to have shaped two cricketers who are destined for greatness. At one time, Singh - from Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh - had dreams of being an India cricketer. But knee injuries dashed his hopes and so he chose to be a coach. He has recently gave permission for a movie to be based on his life story. It's title is apt: Second Chance.

As Jaiswal reaches his nineties, I probe whether the now-successful Jaiswal - with an IPL contract at hand - has ever given him a gift, Singh's smile widens.

"You see his jersey number? It's 23 because that's my birth date," Singh says. "What more can I ask for?

"Before my daughter was born, he was my only child. Now he's an elder brother to my girl. Even my girl has proven lucky for him. The day she was born, December 6, 2017, he struck the double-hundred for Mumbai Under-19.

"He is so mature that when I said I'll give him a car for being the highest run-scorer, he said he doesn't want a new one. He wants to take my old Brezza so that I buy myself a new one."

A few moments later, Jaiswal reaches his hundred by slog-sweeping the Pakistan spinner Aamir Ali over deep midwicket. He raises his arms, looked upwards and says a silent prayer. Singh then says, "I think I'll reveal it to him now. That I'm here."