CHENNAI: Vrinda Dinesh was with the Karnataka U23 in Raipur on Saturday evening. She was bowling while there was a buzz around her teammates. Her name had come up in the auction and there was a bidding war between Gujarat Giants and UP Warriorz.
Eventually, when her teammates told her that UPW had signed her for Rs 1.3 crore, she couldn't believe it. "I thought it was Rs 1.3 lakh and was wondering how it could be. It took me a few minutes to sink in that it was Rs 1.3 crores," says an elated Vrinda.
While it was expected that she would be picked by some team, no one, including Vrinda and her family, expected this big signing. Her father S Dinesh and coach Kiran Uppoor are overjoyed by the recognition she has received in the mini-auction. After all, they two have seen Vrinda go through a lot over the last couple of years.
Always seen as a batting talent, Vrinda broke into the Karnataka team in 2018-19 but was not able to keep her place in successive seasons. She had the technique and aesthetics as a batter but was not able to accelerate. So much so that people called her "Test batter". Realising the need for a change, Vrinda started working with Kiran at the NICE academy.
Together, they understood the skills that needed to be built and worked on it day in and day out. Every day, Vrinda would travel 20 km to train with Kiran all day and come back again in the evening. "I worked on my batting for hours together for a long time. There have been days where I used to get out 8-10 times in matches (at the academy). Arjun (Dev) and Kiran would give me another chance again to go and play. So, probably failing so many times or I would rather say that having played in those kinds of matches helped me become a little more fearless now. Back then, when I was trying to take those chances and get out, I got back trying to figure out how I could improve or probably play that shot a little better and I worked on it," says Vrinda.
Through this period, what has kept her steady is her mental fortitude and hunger to do more. The setbacks have made her tougher, feels Kiran. "It is a different kind of energy. She comes up and says, "No, I want to work hard. What I'm doing is not enough. I'm not in the squad because I haven't done enough'. She wants to keep pushing those limits," he says.
For someone aggressive on the field, with the way she takes on bowlers and lofts them over the head in the powerplay, Vrinda is an extremely calm person off it. Almost as if, she would sit back and watch everyone and have fun playing silent pranks. Having been introduced to the sport by a cricket-loving dad, who also played divisional cricket, at a very young age, it has been the only constant in her life. There has been very little in her life apart from cricket in the past decade. When she gave her all to the sport single-mindedly it affected her. The demands and expectations she had on herself, took a toll and added extra pressure.
As a result, she was trying to be desperate, chasing runs so that people would be happy while forgetting the thrill of batting which made her fall in love with the sport."Sometimes you forget the thrill you get when you hit the ball straight back up over someone. I was very results-oriented. When I went back to training, this attitude took a toll on me and I got mentally drained. I wasn't calm anymore. I wanted things in a particular way and if it didn't happen, I got irritated. Like when you're result-oriented, you want everything to happen in that particular way. You don't think of other ways of getting there. That's when I realized that I should probably leave cricket on the ground and when I come back home, I should enjoy all the little things.
"It's mostly family time for me or friends at NICE itself where we hang around after playing cricket. That's mostly my off time. I don't watch movies. I don't have any other hobbies. I have two dogs at home, so I try to spend a lot of time with them. I try to keep cricket away as much as possible, but I try to give my best when I'm on the field until then I try to remain calm and enjoy," said Vrinda.
And it helped. She started having fun on the field, walking down to bowlers and hitting them downtown. The results followed as well. She got selected for India's emerging side and played in the Emerging Asia Cup final in Hong Kong which the team won. She followed it up with a stellar show in the senior T20 - 211 runs at 154 strike rate in seven innings - which has led to the India A call-up and now the WPL.
While the magnitude of what happened on Saturday might not have sunk in just yet, the pressure of the auction salary would be there as Vrinda steps into the limelight for UP Warriorz. By then, she would be ready for it. She has worked hard to get here, and she knows the first and foremost thing that matters is having fun at cricket. If she does that, everything else will fall into place.