The star of India’s ten-wicket win over South Africa in the one-off-Test accepts that she needs to work hard to get back to the white-ball sides
Nikhil Sharma05-Jul-2024In a match where India became the first team to top 600 in a women’s Test cricket and Shafali Verma hit the fastest double-century in the format, Sneh Rana took back the Player-of-the-Match award. It was her 10 for 188 for the match, after all, that led India to their ten-wicket win – their third Test-match in a row. A good time for her to put in her bid for a women’s Test championship along the lines of the men’s event.”Of course women should have a Test championship,” she told ESPNcricinfo in the gap between the end of the one-off Test and the start of the T20I series between India and South Africa in Chennai. “We have started playing red-ball cricket in the domestic circuit too [from earlier this year], and we are playing more Test matches now, and getting good results. I think a championship will come as a big boost to women’s cricket.”Late last year, in December, India played England and Australia at home, and both series had one-off Test matches slotted in. India won both, beating England by 347 runs and then Australia by eight wickets – Rana was the Player of the Match against Australia too. Three Tests scattered across just over six months, after India had played just 13 Tests since the turn of the millennium, stop and start at that. Only four teams – Australia, England, India and South Africa – currently play Test cricket.Related
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That has made the victories, especially the ones against England and Australia, who play Test cricket most regularly among women’s teams, worth savouring.”It’s about the mindset, we have shown patience,” Rana said. “The challenges are the same, it’s just for longer. The tricks and strategies are the same, but we need to focus on fitness and those things. India are now doing well in all three formats. India have been doing well in ODIs and T20Is, we have been reaching the semi-finals and finals of the World Cups. And now we have won three Tests in a row. It’s a great feeling to win a hat-trick of Tests.”As such, it’s all the same. Just the colour of the ball is different.”Rana might say it’s all the same, but she hasn’t been able to make an impression in white-ball cricket quite the same way as she has in Tests. Her numbers aren’t bat in ODIs and T20Is – especially in the latter, where she has 24 wickets from 25 games at an average of 21.75 and an economy rate of 6.21 – but she hasn’t been a regular in the national team. She was left out of both squads in the ongoing series against South Africa too.
“He knows how to get the best out of each of us. That’s his biggest strength. One of the things I like most about him is that he motivates us a lot, before and during games”Sneh Rana on Amol Muzumdar
“This can happen – you are in the team sometimes and you are out at other times,” Rana said. “My best wishes to whoever is picked for the T20 World Cup [in Bangladesh in October this year] – I’ll want India to win and support them. I want to return to the T20I team, of course, and I’m working hard for it, and will continue to. Selection isn’t in my hands.”That said, it’s true that she doesn’t have the sort of variations some of the more successful white-ball spinners do. She accepts it, too.”Variations… I have one that goes on straight, and I vary the pace, and that’s what I am working on,” she said. “What are my strengths – everything I do is my strength. But yes, I trust my stock delivery the most, that’s my biggest strength. It’s helped me all these years. You would have seen that most of my deliveries are my stock offspin. I flight it, and it loops in the air, and it lands on the seam. That sometimes gets me extra bounce. It’s worked for me against most batters.”Sneh Rana hasn’t been able to hold down a place in India’s white-ball sides•Getty ImagesBack to the Test set-up, and the appointment of Amol Muzumdar as head coach for all formats, Rana said, has had a big impact. “He has changed our mindset and approach. He knows how to get the best out of each of us. That’s his biggest strength. One of the things I like most about him is that he motivates us a lot, before and during games.”All of this has come at an exciting time for women’s cricket in India. The Women’s Premier League, though much delayed, has come as a boon, and has thrown up promising new faces – Saika Ishaque, Shreyanka Patil, Asha Sobhana among them – and there is the domestic red-ball competition Rana alluded to.”Change has come,” Rana said. “Girls are choosing cricket [as a profession]. Competition has gone up, lots of girls are doing well, some of them have played international cricket too. This will help us.”Along with that, our match fees are at par with the male cricketers. We are getting more support and facilities. It’s all very positive right now.”
