CHENNAI: For Divya G, the Karnataka batter, being named as the captain of Heron Sports in the Falcons Golden Jubilee T20 Tournament in January 2021 was the start of a new journey. Organised by former India captain Shantha Rangaswamy, it was the biggest domestic tournament for women cricketers - even involving several India internationals - since the pandemic broke. And for Divya, personally, it was the first big event since she had started training with Roshan Bachan, a former international athlete and para athletics coach at his academy.
But when she was handed a team that was filled with domestic players, Divya jokingly asked Rangaswamy why she wasn’t given any international stars and the reply she got shook her a bit. “The only thing she said was: For me, you are the star. Why don’t you look at it that way? You can take the team through. Why do you need a star there?,” recalls Divya.
“It was a wake up call. I was expected to do a lot and they believed me: I was that star. That’s when the reality hit me that I had nothing else and will have to take the team through,” said Divya, who walked the talk, smashing 276 runs in seven innings at a strike rate of 125.45. Even though she finished at the top of run charts, her side went down to KiNi RR Sports in the final.
Taking confidence from the performance, Divya went into the 2020-21 senior women’s one-dayers with high hopes. But, she had a middling tournament, scoring 198 runs from six matches. Divya went back to the drawing board, trying to address what went wrong. She felt there was a constant conundrum between playing her aggressive stroke play and anchoring the innings. “I used to have two good games but because of fitness and other reasons, I wasn't able to perform consistently,” she reflects.
The 26-year-old turned to her trainer Roshan, with whom she worked hard on fitness over the next few months. “Fitness plays an important role. Most of them came and told me that I am not able to convert my fifties into hundreds because of my fitness. I took it personally and I went to my trainer and asked, ‘you have to do something about this’. He put me through a few months of tough program. It was hard. I was in a shell, I blocked myself from everything else. I believed in my trainer and never questioned as I knew that he was the one who’s going to change my personality,” she says.
“He has trained my mind and fitness to the extent where I can just concentrate on my game. Before I used to think a lot of things from fitness to my batting to strategies, but when a person in your life is there to take care of everything and you just have to focus on your game, from there my career has taken a leap. He’s been a game changer for me. And the improved fitness is helping me play the game I want to play.”
And it did pay off as Divya started reaping rewards when the 2021-22 senior one-dayers came along. She hit 346 runs in six innings, averaging 86.50 with 110.89 strike rate. She played a crucial role in Karnataka’s journey to the final where they lost to Railways, and her performance earned Divya a place in the Challengers Trophy for the first time since 2015.
However, she wasn’t able to continue the purple patch and had a forgettable tournament. Playing with different players in a different team environment for the first time in six years was a bit challenging for her for various reasons. That said, she did not take it to heart and was back to her basics soon enough. “I take it tournament by tournament. I don’t believe in form. You are as good as you are today. I’m a player who sees everyday as an opportunity to go out and do the best you can for the team you play. But I think now I’m better prepared because I know how to go about it.”
Having been a part of the Karnataka senior side since 2011, Divya has grown leaps and bounds in the last two years. While the talent was always there - she broke onto the scene as the next big thing - the 26-year-old is now at the peak of her prowess, performing consistently day in and day out. As a reward, she has been named as deputy to Veda Krishnamurthy, who will lead Karnataka in the senior T20 league.
Thanking the KSCA and team management for backing her over the years, Divya said that she is keen to focus on winning matches for Karnataka. “I’m also happy to play under Veda. She allows people to make mistakes, tells what your roles are, and what she expects out of each player. That makes it easy for us. She’s been a part of the Indian setup for so long that she doesn’t want our team to make the same mistakes as they did and take the team onwards and upwards.”
Divya celebrated the new responsibility with a century (58-ball 102, 14*4s, 6*6s) against Vidarbha in a warm-up game earlier this week, where her last 50 runs came from just 18 balls. She feels that being able to play her natural game, while trying to adjust to situations and still taking the team to a big total was a huge confidence boost.
While she looks at the T20 league as an opportunity to get to the big stage, Divya firmly has her eyes on the trophy. “We have very few games and I have to make it big in this. These games show what the career stands for in the future. It’s a launchpad for us to play big cricket with the T20 Challenge, Commonwealth Games coming up. I know for a fact that if I play the game I do right now, I’ll be in the reckoning. But the first goal is to win the title for Karnataka. Then thereon, anyone would love to play in whatever comes ahead.”
If she’s able to replicate her performance from the one-dayers, both Divya and Karnataka will have a better chance at getting their hands on the trophy.