Some Rare Facts About Your Favourite Indian Women Cricketers

With the T20 Women's World Cup around the corner, Surbhi Vaid brings to you some rare facts about our talented players.

Harmanpreet Kaur

Did y'all know, in 2009 she played her debut match against Pakistan and in 2012 she played her first T20 match as a captain against Pakistan as well. 171 runs scored by Kaur in Women's World Cup is the highest individual run ever scored in this tournaments knockout stage. She became the first Indian cricketer, female or male, when Sydney Thunder, a Women's Big Bash League (foreign T20 league) team selected her as their player. She also bagged the player of tournament award for her debut season in 2016.

Smriti Mandhana

Putting the most recent one first, in March this year she scored 50 runs in mere 30 balls, the fastest half century for India in a Women's T20 International. Smriti's family is her biggest support system, her father helps her in scheduling her cricketing program, her mother takes care of her nutrition and clothing and her brother still bowls her in nets. Smriti was another Indian player along with Harmanpreet Kaur to play for Women's Big Bash League in year 2016 but due to an injury she was ruled out of the tournament. She once told that she wanted her name to come in newspaper and believed that cricket is the only sport which will help her in achieving this dream of hers and hence she got dedicated towards it.

Mithali Raj

Highest run scorer in women's cricket and the only one to surpass 6000 runs mark, is one of her many records.
She is the first woman player and first Indian cricketer, male or female, to score 2000 T20 runs. By leading the team to 2 world cup finals, in 2005 and 2015 she became the first Indian cricketer to captain the team in 2 World Cup Finals. She has also played the role of coach for Indian women's national cricket team while her tenure as a player.
Soon Viacom 18 will come with a feature film on Raj's life. She loves reading and is a trained classical dancer.

Jemimah Rodrigues

The 17-year-old is as good in academics as she is in extra-curricular activities. Chak de and Hajime no Ippo (anime) are her favorite movies. Jemimah enjoys playing both cricket and hockey and was also picked by Maharashtra U-19 hockey team. She loves playing guitar and always carries it with herself. She's the second Indian woman after Smriti Mandhana to score a double century in Women's Under 19 one day cricket.

Veda Krishnamurthy

Youngest in the family, Veda has obtained double black belt at age of 12. Mithali Raj was her idol and it was when the same was felicitated in her school she realized her dream of becoming a cricketer. Her father is a cable operator.
In October 2017, she became the 3rd Indian Cricketer to play for Women's Big Bash League. She's also the youngest Indian women cricketer to complete 1000 runs in ODI.

Deepti Sharma

She made her One Day International debut at the age of 17. When she was 9 she used to accompany her brother for training session and that's when her coach spotted her. She has been mentored by former Indian cricketer and selector, Hemlata Kala. Her favourite cricketer is Suresh Raina. She has the record of scoring 188 runs in WODI, second highest score after Belinda Clark's 229 runs.

Taniya Bhatia

Her jersey number is 28 which also happens to be her birth date. She has been trained by Yuvraj Singh's father Yograj Singh while she was studying in DAV senior secondary high school. She's the first woman cricketer from Chandigarh who made her way to the national team. At the age of 13 she became the youngest cricketer to play for senior Punjab team. Her father used to play cricket and is now an employee of Central Bank of India.

Poonam Yadav

Her father is former Army officer. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has applauded her bowling through his message on Twitter. Her father supported her in playing cricket only after the insistence of her coach.

Radha Yadav

Her father is a vegetable vendor. Along with cricket she used to play Kabbadi and kho-kho in her school.
She didn't know that women played at International level and initially thought she would play with boys.

Anuja Patil

She's been playing T20 International for India since 2012 and yet have not played a single International test or one day match.

Ekta Bisht

The first International Woman Cricketer from the state of Uttarakhand. Her father held the post of Havaldar in Indian Army and after retirement to support the family he started his own tea stall business. Initially when she started playing cricket she used to play with boys and was the only girl in a boy team. Bisht recorded a hat-trick in 2012 in ICC World Women T20 against Sri Lanka.

Dayalan Hemlatha

She made her way through college cricket directly and has also played for India A.

Mansi Joshi

Her favourite cricketer is Sachin Tendulkar. Her favorite movie is Sachin: Billion Dreams. She is an ardent fan of Kishore Kumar and enjoys listening his songs. "Aate Jaate Khoobsurat Awaara galliyo main" is her mobile tune, a song from 'Anurodh' a Rajesh Khanna starrer movies.

Pooja Vastrakar

She's referred as junior Hardik Pandya by her teammates. Mithali Raj has given her the nickname 'Babloo' and the fielding coach calls her 'Babulal'. She lost her mother when she was ten. Her favourite batsman is Virendra Sehwag.
She was trained by Srivastava in an all boys facility academy, then known as Gulmohar Cricket Academy.

Arundhati Reddy

Reddy's mother, her biggest supporter, was a volleyball player. She enjoys eating junk food and chocolates as cheat meal. She has shared dressing room with Mithali Raj even before making her debut in international cricket and finds a mentor in Raj.

This Article Was First Published In Female Cricket