Prathyusha gathered her thoughts and soaked in the atmosphere to face her first ball in international cricket, with her idol and Indian captain Mithali Raj at the other end.
The youngster almost got run out on her first ball, but as she scampered across for her first run, the sigh of relief was quite evident. Having finally earned an international debut after years of hard work in the domestic circuit for Karnataka, Prathyusha didn’t get much of a chance to impress with the bat.
However, with the ball, she prized the important scalp of Anneke Bosch, with Raj pouching a simple catch. For the Karnataka youngster, the debut was all the more special, with Raj playing a massive supporting role throughout the match, including handing her the India cap.
In an exclusive interview with Sportskeeda, Prathyusha reflects on her ODI debut, her early introduction to cricket and what’s in store for Indian women’s cricket in the years to come.
As tradition goes, Prathyusha was informed of the management’s decision to hand her a debut the evening before the match, and the all-rounder recollects the ‘sleepness night’ that followed.
“It takes a lot of mental strength to come this far”
Prathyusha resides with her family in the cricket-loving city of Bengaluru, and she’s been an imperative part of the Herons Cricket Club. As a sports aficianado from a very young age, it was only natural that the sport came knocking at her door.
While it was initially sitting alongside her father and watching the game on TV that hooked her onto the sport, an introduction to the concept of women’s cricket in 2010 further sparked an interest in her to take up the sport a lot more seriously.
Prathyusha’s first stint with a coaching centre came at the Falcons Sports Club, an academy for which she has the utmost gratitude, owing to all the support she received from the coaches and staff members.
While it’s no secret that men’s cricket is placed at a higher pedestal than women’s cricket - at least in India - the competition with the boys helped Pratyusha develop the mental strength required to succeed at the international level.
A huge fan of MS Dhoni and more recently, Virat Kohli, Prathyusha has produced quite a few handy knocks with the bat in the domestic circuit. With the ball, the leg-spinner has managed to bamboozle some of the biggest names in world cricket.
In List-A cricket, Prathyusha has 66 wickets in 46 matches while in T20 cricket, the youngster has 34 scalps to her name from 38 matches, at a terrific economy rate of just 4.67.
While the bowling stats certainly overshadow her efforts with the bat, Prathyusha hopes to contribute a lot more with the willow in times to come.
As for personal goals, winning a World Cup is the pinnacle of sport, at least in cricketing terms. And for Prathyusha, the path ahead is heading towards only one destination - the Indian women’s squad for the global tournament.
“We need to have more teams in the Women’s IPL”
Back in 2018, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) introduced a Women’s T20 Challenge, a tournament akin to the IPL. The first edition featured just a one-off match between Smriti Mandhana’s Trailblazers against Harmanpreet Kaur’s Supernovas, an encounter that was won by the latter.
The next season, in 2019, the Women’s T20 challenge grew bigger with the addition of team Velocity, led by veteran Mithali Raj. The 2020 edition of the competition featured the same three teams, but the absence of some high-profile foreign stars meant the tournament stuck out like a sore thumb.
To make matters worse, ardent women’s cricket fans felt let down and even termed the four-match competition just a ‘filler’ amidst the glory of IPL 2020.
A few months ago, former Australian cricketer Lisa Sthalekar suggested that efforts invested in the Women’s IPL would be similar to buying a house. Prathyusha threw her weight behind the topic, suggesting that more teams would mean a lot more exposure to international quality cricket.
As recently as January 2021, the Indian Nippon Cup tournament was held in Bengaluru to celebrate Falcon Cricket Club’s Golden Jubilee. The 4-team competition witnessed the participation of some big names such as Veda Krishnamurthy, Jemimah Rodrigues, Radha Yadhav among others.
One among the four captains was Prathyusha, who led the Kini RR Sports team. The biggest takeaway from the tournament was the underlying principle of promoting domestic talent.
While being effusive in her acknowledgement of the Falcons Club for giving the players a chance to get onto the field during the pandemic, Prathyusha reckons that Karnataka’s success could be used as a yardstick for the BCCI to explore increasing the number teams in the Women’s T20 challenge.
Having fought through hardships to earn a debut at the international level, one thing is for sure. Prathyusha will not stop at anything to push for a spot in the World Cup spot, and from there, she’ll give it her all to bring the trophy home.
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