CHENNAI: March 15, 2023, was a special day for the Smriti Mandhana-led Royal Challengers Bangalore. After five back-to-back losses to start the season, they finally had a win on the board at the DY Patil Stadium in the first season of the Women's Premier League. Young Kanika Ahuja stole the show with 46 runs then, but it was bowlers who set up that win for the franchise. Asha Sobhana played her part with two wickets. Social media even fell in love with her Hang Loose Celebration.
One person who was massively impressed with Asha's bowling then was former India international, Laxman Sivaramakrishnan. "I am available to coach Asha the leg spinner free of cost because I believe she is a natural talent and very important to know what they are doing right and do it consistently. She could be a match-winner for India #WPL2023." Sivaramakrishnan spotted the talent and wanted to help Asha unlock her potential.
"I went on Twitter and offered to coach her free of cost because there are not too many good leg spinners around in world cricket. If I can help somebody, why not? She came on about three weeks ago to Chennai when I was free for three days and she went to play in the WPL", Sivaramakrishnan told this daily after Asha took five wickets for Bangalore to help her team beat UP Warriorz by two runs in a close finish in the WPL.
After the first season with the franchise, where she featured in five matches and took five wickets, Asha knew the challenges at that elite level where one has to show up, again and again, to make their mark. Sivaramakrishnan was also aware of her talent, the need was to make it all count on the biggest stage possible. The duo made most of the time they got and Sivaramakrishnan praised his student for absorbing the knowledge he had to offer. "It was about making small technical corrections and then how to approach the game and visualization. (We focussed on) the technical and mental part of the game because we had three days and two sessions each day. We had very little time to work on it, but she grasped everything very quickly and she started brilliantly in the WPL," he mentioned.
And the skill and temperament were on display from Asha with her team in desperate need of wickets. After ending debutant Vrinda Dinesh's long vigil and castling Australian vice-captain Tahlia McGrath back in the very same over, Asha got hit for 11 runs in her third over of the match. Despite getting hit, captain Smriti Mandhana kept faith in the 32-year-old and gave her the ball when it felt like UP were closing in on a win. With Grace Harris, one of the cleanest hitters of the ball in women's game still in the game, Asha bowled a dream over to take three wickets in an over, including that of Harris, while giving away just two runs to keep Bangalore in the hunt for a win in front of their home crowd.
"Not thinking about my five wickets, very happy that we won our first game in front of our fans. I knew that the situation would be something like this and I visualised, and did my homework as well," Asha said in the post-match presentation. The work that went in with technical corrections and visualization with Sivaramakrishnan helped the already talented bowler. The mentor couldn't be happier for his ward. "I thought she bowled really well with a lot of control and taking three wickets off one over at the right time to win the close game. She has shown great skills and temperament. It gave me a lot of joy and delight to watch her win the match, a very close game, win a match. To get a five-wicket haul, especially in the T20 game, is an outstanding achievement, but she put in a lot of hard work," he added.
Fresh off her match-winning spell, Asha was nothing but grateful for Sivaramakrishnan's vital inputs. "Laxman Sir offered me free coaching. I went to Chennai and trained with him was a lot of learning," she told the media. "We had lots of discussions and it helped me to fine-tune (my bowling). I spoke to him after the match also. He was very happy with my performance. Such a legendary spinner gave me free coaching for three days. It is something I am going to remember forever in my life. I'm thankful to Laxman sir," Asha humbly added.
While the result went her team's way after a tense finish, Sivaramakrishnan had a simple message for Asha. "I think, this is only a start. You have to know people expect a lot of things from you. So you have to maintain this form. This five-wicket haul will give you confidence, but every match is so important for you that you need to take one match at a time. And one over at a time has not put too much pressure. Leg spinners are match winners and her job is to get the wickets," that is what he told her over a call.
For now, Bangalore have a match-winner amongst their ranks, who wants to win more matches for the franchise. No matter how she goes, with the help of the former player, who spotted her talent, Asha has already created history at the WPL.