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Follow UsTo say that Renuka Singh Thakur had a poor start to 2024 would be an understatement.
She managed to get only one wicket in the three T20Is played in Mumbai against Australia. Then came the 2024 edition of the Women’s Premier League (WPL), and her performance dipped to the bottom of the barrel as she averaged 113 in 10 games and picked only two wickets.
These are abysmal numbers if you consider what Renuka has managed to achieve in her career otherwise with the ball. Within a year of making her debut in T20Is (in 2021), she was not only a mainstay of the side but also became the leading pacer across formats.
That’s why when the fall came, it was as stunning as her rise. And that’s when she had to go back to the drawing board by her own admission, and work with Troy Cooley (a bowling coach) at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru.
There was an evident disruption in action right before she got into her delivery stride, which affected her control of line and length at the crease. With Cooley, she worked on getting her prime bowling shape back, and the results have been there to see in this Asia Cup.
Right from her game against Pakistan, where she gave India the early breakthrough yet again, her deliveries had started to pitch largely in the good and short of a good length area, which made it harder for batters to create room and line her up, with her ball always coming into the right-handers or going out to lefties.
Her pitch map against Bangladesh from the first semifinal of the Asia Cup is a great illustration of that. In fact, it was in this crucial encounter that once again she picked up multiple wickets in the powerplay, and the opposition couldn’t come back after those early blows.
After being hit for a six over backward square leg by Dilara Akter, who used her angle and the windy conditions at Dambulla to great effect, she maintained her line and length and kept the ball outside of the off stump. Dilara again went for the same big shot but was caught at square leg this time.
If ever there was a testament of how much length accuracy is crucial in Renuka’s bowling, it was this dismissal. Yes, her swing is what makes her special. But her accuracy is what allowed her to take a wicket in each of her three overs in the powerplay.
She had already seen that the Bangladeshi batters wouldn’t die wondering against the much stronger India. They were playing their shots. So she pitched the ball up at a driving length for Ishma Tanjim to hit, but Tanjim miscued it.
In her next over (fifth of the innings), she offered another scoring opportunity to the left-handed Murshida Khatun by pitching the ball short of a good length from around the wicket. But the wicket-to-wicket line ensured that Murshida never got the room necessary to impart elevation on the ball, and she was caught at short midwicket.
Harmanpreet gave her the fourth over on the trot, and she showed spectacular control yet again and bowled a maiden. The pacer from Himachal ended up with stellar figures of 3/10 in four overs, and at the end of the game, the Player of the Match Trophy rested deservingly in her lap.
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Renuka is not just your run-of-the-mill swing bowler. Her accuracy makes her so hard to hit, and that’s why she is only the third India pacer to reach 50 wickets in the shortest format of the game.
What’s even more mind-boggling is that 34 of those 50 wickets have come in the powerplay, and no bowler amongst the top 10 T20I sides in women’s cricket has more wickets than her in the first six overs.
Amongst these 34 wickets, 18 have come against Australia and England! So it’s not just that Renuka is great in the powerplays. She is great against the best teams in the world as well, and that’s why a dry first few months of the year were so shocking for her and the Indian fans alike.
That’s why when she bowled with a run up as smooth as white butter against Bangladesh, and picked up wickets in clusters in the powerplay, the sun shone a bit brighter on Indian women’s cricket and their chances at the upcoming T20 World Cup in Bangladesh.
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