INTERVIEW
Follow UsSome players' origin stories trump their achievements on the field. Even fewer people stand out in their field despite coming from challenging backgrounds.
Kiran Navgire is of the latter kind. Born in an agrarian family in Pune, Navgire wasn’t shining with privilege when she displayed her effervescent talent to the entire Indian women’s cricket ecosystem during the Women’s T20 Challenge (a tangential progenitor of the Women’s Premier League) in 2022 when she scored a 24-ball half century.
However, her power-hitting talent shone bright enough for her to be picked up by the UP Warriorz (UPW) when the WPL began next year. Before that, she even got to play for the senior Indian women’s team during the 2022 Asia Cup, and once against the English women the same year. However, since then, the consistency of her run-scoring took a hit, and a spot in the Indian team has eluded her ever since.
That’s where the UPW setup has been beneficial for the right-handed basher. Working with great coaches and mentors like ICC Hall of Fame member Lisa Sthalekar and Jon Lewis (also the England women’s head coach) has certainly improved her game, which was visible when India A women visited Australia for a multi-format series against Australia A.
Scheduled two months before the 2024 T20 World Cup in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), it was a great opportunity for Navgire to audition for the open spot at number three in the batting order. Alas, she batted at number five during the tour. While she scored only 62 runs in three innings, she was the only Indian batter who troubled Australia A skipper Tahlia McGrath enough to ruffle some feathers of the indomitable hosts.
When we talked to her right before the T20 World Cup, she acknowledged (with a strained apologetic smile) that missing the World Cup did hurt her. However, she also showed some real honesty in accepting that she didn’t exactly break down the doors with her performance.
“Yeah, I do feel I mean that there was a really good opportunity for me to win a few games for the country in such a big tournament,” she told Cricket.com in an exclusive conversation.
“However, I also realise that my performances weren’t that great as well on the Australia tour that they’ll select me for the World Cup. I would have been selected had it been any bilateral series, but it was a World Cup, so the players who have been performing and are more experienced got the go ahead.”
Navgire, meanwhile, was rather focused on how helpful the ‘dream’ Australia tour was for her in developing her game, which was especially reflected in the 20-ball 38 she hit in the third T20 game. She wanted to bat on good batting tracks with true bounce, and her selection for the tour helped her achieve that.
“I was really happy after going there because it has always been my dream to play against Australia and defeat them,” Navgire said.
“The selection call itself was really elating for me because I had heard about how the pitches there are so good for batting, and that prospect really was exciting for me.
“I was putting in a lot of effort in practice and was constantly talking to the coaches about where I’ll bat. That’s when they told me that they are looking to use me at number four and five, and they tasked me with finishing the matches from that position.”
Playing against some of the best of Australia’s Women’s Big Bash League (WBBL) talents, she faced stiff competition both with the bat and in the field. India A lost all three T20s, but Navgire saw the silver lining as the big grounds helped her improve her running between the wickets, which isn’t the strongest part of her batting. Moreover, the athleticism of the Australian fielders made her value fielding as a skill a lot more.
“I got run out in the first [T20] match, and that made me feel really bad,” Navgire recollected.
“But I did get a good start in the next two games, and I was kinda happy with the way I played because it’s really hard getting runs against the Australian bowlers and fielders, who are so alert all the time. I also executed some hard-hit big shots, which I’m known for.
“The grounds were also big with 65-70m boundaries, so I was also trying to look for a lot of singles and doubles. That effort was pleasing for me because it showed that I can also score by my running, and not just through boundaries.
After the Australia A tour I’ve got a better sense of the areas where I need to work on. So I’ve been putting in a lot of effort in my fitness, fielding, and trying to finish games. Fielding, especially, is something I’m paying extra attention to, as it’s really crucial for a batter to be a good fielder.”
That’s where the off-season camps organised by the UPW management have also helped her fine-tune her basics, which she hardly gets to do while playing the WPL or any other tournament. Moreover, her development as a boundary hitter and finisher also took a lot of precedence in these camps. This was exactly what these camps were supposed to be, as coach Lewis had told us in a conversation prior to the 2024 edition of the WPL.
All the hard work done in the six-day camp in Lucknow came to fruition when she scored 125* off just 68 deliveries against Arunachal Pradesh for Maharashtra in the premier domestic T20 competition, the Senior Women’s T20 Trophy. This also happens to be the highest score by a batter in the tournament so far this year.
“We had a great camp in Lucknow for six days,” the 30-year-old batter said.
“There were experienced coaches helping us figure out how to finish an innings better; then there were a lot of fielding drills where fielding coaches told us how to chase a ball better, how to cut angles in the field, how to position oneself under a high catch amongst many other things.
“In batting also there was Pratibhan sir who helped me figure out how to score more boundaries lower down the order so that both the team and individual scores could improve. Those six days in the camp were great for working on these basics of the game.”
Meanwhile, the UPW setup has also allowed her to work with the likes of Sthalekar and Lewis who have added the much needed balance in her batting, which would help her return to the Indian side as soon as possible.
“They [Sthalekar and Lewis] have told me limited things only because they keep saying that they are aware of my hitting abilities, however one thing they focused on with me was to curb the instincts to drag an off-side ball on the on-side for big shots, because when you lift an off-side delivery towards the off-side boundary, you can even get a six for it.
“Meanwhile, Jon especially gave me immense freedom to play my game. That’s the most important thing for any player to perform. He also got me to understand how I don’t have to play rash shots and get out if I’m unable to hit boundaries. I can bide my time, rotate the strike, and when the time comes, I’ll smash it. So these suggestions were really crucial for me.”
Navgire has had a long journey in cricket already, even traversing the North Eastern frontiers of Nagaland in a bid to get some games under her belt somehow. However, cricket wasn’t even in the picture for her initially, as she was into athletics and javelin throw. But that’s when fate interfered, and today, as the Indian women’s T20 side finds itself in a muddy puddle, Navgire is at its door asking for a comeback amongst the Women in Blue.
“There were many people who questioned me when I had left athletics and joined Cricket,” Navgire said with a sudden seriousness.
“But I’m really happy that I proved my decision right, because even from a family point of view it was important as financially and otherwise also it’s been really helpful. Now, women’s cricket is also growing quite rapidly so this decision to start playing cricket was really good for me.”
