Mumbai: There are exceptions – like Sachin Tendulkar who was already a finished product in his first international series – but for most other players, the ride is not so smooth. After reaching the big stage, they encounter better opposition, the kind that studies and exploits the chinks in their game. It forces the player into a perpetual self-reflection mode.
Indian cricket’s current prince of batting, Shubman Gill, has been through the same journey. He started impressively in 2020-21 in Australia, but soon realised he was some way off from being a finished article. Under immense pressure, Gill stepped up his game in the middle of the last Test series against England.
In the India women’s team for the upcoming T20 World Cup, Jemimah Rodrigues has also had to go through the struggle. Though technically sound, the Mumbai player had to show she could make an impact in the fast-paced format.
Jemimah accepted the need to work on her game as she had said in her press conference during the Women’s Premier League game earlier this season — “Cricket is a game you need to keep improving. I can’t stick to, ‘okay, I am this kind of a player’. No, I need to keep improving.”
And improved she has. The 2024 edition is going to be the Mumbai player’s fourth T20 World Cup, and at the age of 24 she has the experience and the game to be seen as a key batter in India’s middle order.
“More than a power-hitter, Jemimah is a calculative batter, who knows how to milk the bowlers,” said former India women’s team coach Ramesh Powar. “She is good at building partnerships, with Smriti (Mandhana), Shafali (Verma), Harmanpreet (Kaur). It allows them to express themselves. Jemimah is the mainstay, if she gets out then there is an issue, because she keeps one end going.”
WV Raman, who is also a former India coach, believes Jemimah’s versatility will be what India needs.
“I think, she will have a pivotal role to play. As a batter she obviously needs to be the catalyst in that she has to try and do what the situation demands. The kind of role allocation she is given, whether at 3 or 5… if they use her at No 5 then she has to be a kind of hustler that India needs in a conventional mould. Be very athletic and busy between the wickets. which will prove very critical or India.”
What has also helped develop her T20 game is the decision to play in leagues around the world – in Australia, England and Caribbean. For Powar, the various experiences helped Jemimah’s confidence. “Her advantage is she knows how to handle pressure. If you need 60 off 30 balls, she will not give up; she knows that it is chaseable,” says Powar.
The confidence in her ability is the result of the work he has done to improve her strike-rate. Though power-hitting is not her forte, she looks to maintain her strike-rate by timing the ball and playing the field by hitting in the gaps. She is especially strong on the off-side.
“She is not worried about power-hitting, she is focussing on playing 360 degrees. Now her strike rate has become quite high. In the last five overs it goes up to 170,” says Prashant Shetty, who has been coaching Jemimah from her early days at the MIG Academy ground in the Bandra suburb in Mumbai, along with Prithvi Shaw.
When everyone around her was dealing in fours and sixes, it was not easy for Jemimah to believe that she could make an impact with a different style of play. But her teammates and her father, Ivan Rodrigues, who is also her first coach, helped her understand her strengths.
“Sometimes just seeing everybody go out there bang, bang, I was like I have to do it for the team, I also need to do it (hit)… just wanted to keep the tempo going. I was trying to play like someone I was not,” Jemimah had said in her media interaction. “Laura Harris (Australia batter) from our team, she was the one who told me ‘you have such good hands, just manoeuvre the field’. Smriti also messaged me: ‘be Jemimah Rodrgiues, don’t try to be someone else and you will be fine’. And my dad also told me: ‘just stick to your strengths’.”
The message hit home. She now sticks to trying to hit the ball in the gaps. And so far, it is working.
As Powar says: “When you see Jemimah bat, you can see she wants to win. If you look at her reaction in the match also, she wants to prove the point that I belong here. She is a bright spot for Indian cricket going forward.”
Jemimah was part of the Indian team that reached the final of the 2020 T20 World Cup. Indian fans would hope the team goes one better this time. To fulfil the dream, the middle-order batter will have to play a key role.