CHENNAI: When you think of Jemimah Rodrigues, the phrase 'chopping and changing' comes to mind. Since her debut against Australia in 2018, India has played 52 ODIs with the right-hander playing 23 games. Initially, in her career, like many other newcomers, she would get the opportunity to bat once or twice in three matches. In 2019, one of the best years for India as they won all four series they played, Rodrigues became a regular in the XI, helping her team win nine of their 12 matches.
However, it all came crashing down when South Africa visited India after the lengthy Covid break. India lost both the ODI and T20I series. The multi-format series in England didn't go India's way and Rodrigues lost her place in the ODI set-up. Despite a run of excellent individual performances in the T20Is, when India announced the squad for the ODI World Cup in New Zealand, she was not part of it -- not even in the reserves.
"I think this time last year where I was at home, I was not in a good headspace because I was dropped from the ODI World Cup," Rodrigues told reporters after her match-winning innings against Pakistan in the T20 World Cup earlier this year.
"That was the toughest time for me. I was not okay mentally. I had taken a break because cricket is something I love and the World Cup is a dream for every cricketer. Missing out on that was hard," an emotional Rodrigues added in Cape Town.
If the chopping part of the equation took an emotional toll on the 22-year-old, 'changing' derailed the possibility of consolidating her position in the batting order. ODIs and T20Is combined, she has batted at every position from opener to No 5 for India. In the ongoing ODI series against Bangladesh, she found herself batting at No 5, where she had never batted before. While she did not fire in the first game and India lost, the Mumbaikar came back strongly to smash a 78-ball 86 and take four wickets, helping the visitors level the series in Mirpur on Wednesday.
In the post-match press conference, she explained the reason behind this change that helped her smash her highest ODI score.
"Captain (Harmanpreet Kaur) and coach (Nooshin al Khadeer) told me, I have to bat at five in this series to help the team. And I was ready for it. On this challenging wicket, we had to build partnerships. I didn't change my mindset. The basic talk was how we can have good partnerships and take the team through," she said.
After some low scores in the series, Rodrigues says she was annoyed with herself for not making the most of the opportunities. "There was frustration because I knew what I could offer to this team. I play in Mumbai. We have slow and turning tracks. If anyone is used to this condition in our team, I think that was me. I was very annoyed at myself that I couldn't take up responsibility for my team. Today, I kept short targets for myself to help me focus." Rodrigues said.
For the youngster who has been in and outside the squad, moved up and down the order far too often in the last three years, whether this No. 5 spot will be the ideal position to consolidate her place, only time will tell. After all, they do not play another ODI series until December. However, if they continue to persist with her in that position, they might just have solid batter to ensure India do not have to incur more middle-order collapses.
Brief scores: India 228/8 in 50 ovs (Rodrigues 86; Nahida 2/37) bt Bangladesh 120 all out in 35.1 ovs (Fargana 47; Rodrigues 4/3) by 108 runs