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Follow UsDayalan Hemalatha was one of the few players who performed for the Gujarat Giants in the first season of the Women’s Premier League (WPL). 151 runs in eight innings at a strike rate of 157.3 meant that in the WPL 2024, she was finally given a chance to bat at number three and create a bigger impact at the top after being underused by her side.
She scored 74 off just 40 deliveries against Mumbai Indians in WPL 2024, and 34 of those 74 runs came in just 16 deliveries against spin.
That was clean hitting. That was elite hitting against a strong bowling lineup. It was the kind of hitting that can make a huge difference in a game where power-hitting is rare and worth its weight in gold.
Read: A Dayalan Hemalatha show that made you wonder "What If"
Hence, no one was surprised when the India call-up came after the WPL season. With the upcoming T20 World Cup happening in Bangladesh, India needed a spin basher in their lineup. And Hemalatha was striking at 168.6 against off-spin, 137.5 against leg spin, and 158.8 against left-arm spin in the WPL. She was the perfect candidate to be just that.
However, considering their long batting lineup in the T20Is, India wanted that impetus from her at the top of the order itself. That’s why, right from the first game she played against Bangladesh, Hemalatha batted at three.
To accommodate her at that number, Amol Muzumdar and Harmanpreet Kaur decided to make Jemimah Rodrigues bat at number five instead of three. They gave the top three full license to bat aggressively from the first ball itself. And for Hemalatha, the role couldn’t have been more well-defined - she had to come and attack spin from ball one.
However, that’s where the sharp rise has stalled a bit for the Chennai allrounder, as her returns with the bat against spin haven't strengthened her case to keep batting at number three for India in T20Is.
To the Indian management’s credit, she has been allowed to bat at three in all seven T20Is she has played since making her comeback in the side. However, only in two of those seven innings has she scored more than 30 runs, despite playing a complete T20I series against a relatively weaker opposition in Bangladesh.
What is more concerning amidst this is that while she has struck at 128.2 against spin, a palpable weakness has kept troubling her in this phase. That was there for everyone to see in the manner of her dismissal against UAE in Dambulla during India’s second match of the Women’s Asia Cup.
Left-arm spinner Heena Hotchandani bowled a skiddy ball on a good length and on the off stump, and all Hemalatha had to do was rock back and place it gently on the leg side for a single. However, her foot movement rocking back was slow, and her bat looked to slash the ball instead of placing it. The next moment, her woodwork was disturbed.
In the four dismissals she has had against spinners in these seven games since the WPL, she has been out on the backfoot twice. In fact, she has scored only 27 runs in 36 deliveries while going back in her crease and has scored just two boundaries. Her remaining two spin dismissals have come when she's went to charge the spinners.
These are not good signs for someone who is the designated spin hitter of the side and occupies a crucial position in the batting order.
Indian women don’t have any major bilateral series planned after the Asia Cup and before the T20 World Cup. In such a case, the team management’s patience with Hemalatha is also being tested as Yastika Bhatia and Sabbhineni Meghana are in the ranks as worthy number threes who can bat at high strike rates.
Then there is Jemimah, who is currently batting at five but is an excellent option to be used at number three as she hardly ever lets the run-scoring rate go down and is extremely adept at taking down spin.
Time might be running out on the Hemalatha experiment. The next game against Nepal on July 23 could be decisive for the Chennai girl.
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