OPINION
Follow UsIf you are a spinner who grew up bowling on the dusty pitches in the subcontinent, staring at the green tops on foreign soil is a nightmare. But, India's Rajeshwari Gayakwad is wired differently. Her eyes light up at the prospect of bowling in those conditions where spinners are the primary targets for batters.
"I enjoy bowling in foreign conditions. There is a great amount of hard work that goes into it, but I love bowling on a green top," she told in a recent interview with Women's Criczone.
The timing of her words, just before the 2022 World Cup in New Zealand, might sound like a bluff, but Gayakwad's numbers prove it. 31 of her 81 ODI wickets have come bowling in New Zealand, Australia, England and South Africa where pacers rule the roost.
Her match-winning 4-46 in Wednesday's warm-up match against South Africa is the latest example. On surfaces which offer finger spinners better grip on the ball but punish the slightest of error with their lengths, Gayakwad has been supremely accurate to pose a threat.
For Gayakwad, who took up javelin throw and discus throw in her school years, landing the ball in the right areas has never been a problem. Gayakwad might not be the best wicket-taking option during this period but the ability to hit the right areas and turning the ball both ways makes her a reliable option during the middle overs, which has been India's biggest problem while defending totals.
Since the last ODI World Cup, she has a middling strike rate of 40, but is the most economical at 3.8 runs per over among India's spin quintet alongside Sneh Rana, Ekta Bisht, Poonam Yadav and Deepti Sharma. In the previous ODI series against South Africa and Australia, Gayakwad was the second-best bowler during the middle overs with economies of 3.8 and 3.9.
While Bisht, another left-arm spinner in the team, can produce more wicket-taking chances with her flatter trajectory, Gayakwad's drift is a menace against teams who struggle with the ball above the eyeline.
Gayakwad would not have come this far had she been stuck on her first love for fast bowling. Watching Zaheer Khan running in from far away and leap into the air was aspirational for young Gayakwad. She would mimic Zaheer’s action while playing tennis-ball cricket with her cousins and brothers.
After a year of being unable to generate pace and conceding a lot of runs, a big failure in an inter-state match put everything into perspective.
“When I got selected for the Karnataka Under 19 team, we were playing in Hyderabad. May be because I was nervous, I could never finish the over and bowled 11 balls. My coach in Bijapur gave me an ultimatum, ‘You either switch to spin or stop coming to my academy.’ I finally gave in after he had a chat with my father, who later convinced me,” she said in an interview with Female Cricket.
Switching skill sets was tough as her body would go sore from rolling her arm in the nets. But Gayakwad had done it previously. She was a volleyball player until her high school days while taking part in other sports. She started playing cricket seriously at the age of 16 and made the leap to state level within two years.
While Poonam Yadav and Deepti Sharma have been the most sought-after Indian spinners across franchise cricket, Gayawad has consistently delivered for the national and domestic teams. She finished as the third-highest wicket-taker in the 2021 One Day Challenger Trophy with seven wickets at an average of 16.14, including a valiant 4-36 in the final for runners-up India D.
Though she missed the England tour due to a knee injury and COVID-19, she is the most economical Indian spinner in the past two years at 4.4 RPO. This consistency has also seen her promoted to Grade A of BCCI central contracts.
Going into the 2022 World Cup in New Zealand, Gayakwad will be competing with four other spinners, two of them who are capable batters, for a place in the playing XI. But for Gayakwad, the team's performances mattered the most.
Despite not playing in the first six matches in the 2017 World Cup, she put in a career-defining performance of 5-15 against New Zealand to send India to the semis. Gayakwad always had the big-match temperament and match readiness.
“When I first got selected for the national team and put on the jersey, I was overwhelmed and nervous. But when I got the ball in my hands, I forgot everything else,” she told Female Cricket, remembering her 2013 debut against Sri Lanka.
