CHENNAI: It's 2023. Ashwani Kumari is a fast bowling all-rounder of Gujarat Giants in the Women's Premier League. The 25-year-old was bought in the auction for Rs 35 lakh by the franchise that has Nooshin Al Khadeer and Mithali Raj in their coaching staff. She is the only one from her current state team to be a part of the WPL.
However, more than a decade ago, when Ashwani met coach Kajal Das with her dad at the Telco Club Ground in Jamshedpur, she was sent back home. At that point, Das was not coaching any girls at his academy. He was not sure and sent them back. However, they weren't going to take no for an answer.
Despite playing cricket all through her childhood in Govindpur, the 25-year-old had no clue that it was a career option until then. And having watched the 2013 Women's ODI World Cup happen in India, the then-teenager realised that she could become a professional.
A few days later, the father and daughter went back to Das again at the Cable Cricket Academy in Cable Town, Jamshedpur. And this time, after watching her sprint, Das decided to take her under his wings. "I liked what I saw. She was training with the boys and picked up the tricks of the trade quickly. We made a plan for her and started training her with a goal — to play for India. When the Jharkhand trials were happening, I knew she would get selected, and from thereon her journey began," Das told The New Indian Express.
While Ashwani had all the support from her family to play cricket, the journey was not easy, especially financially. Back then, she did not have a proper kit and used to borrow from the boys she trained with. In fact, it was Das who bought Ashwani her first cricket kit. There were other issues as well. With only one vehicle in the family at that point, she was dependent on someone to drop her off and pick her up as her village was far from the city. On occasions, she had to miss practice because of it.
"In Jamshedpur, we play in Keenan Stadium and practice at the Shahid Nirmal Mahato Stadium. Her house, in Govindpur, was at least 15-18 km away. It was not a busy route. If she is going back home in the evening after practice, her parents used to worry. She did not have many chances to train near her house.
Despite all that she will come in early in the morning, I mean, purely because of her sheer will, she pushed further," said Umesh Sethi, who was her coach in the Jharkhand state team.
In fact, it was Sethi who saw her hit the ball long in the nets and turned her into an all-rounder from a medium pacer. The lofted hits, bat swing and followthrough impressed him as he asked Ashwani to work on her batting. Gradually, they pushed her up the order in the local tournaments and district matches.
In the 2020-21 domestic season, Ashwani was the impact middle-order batter in the 50-over format for her state. Last year, opening the batting in the shortest format, the all-rounder smashed 237 runs at a strike rate of 135.42 in the senior T20 tournament. She followed it up with a crucial performance against Central Zone (65 off 49 balls) in the Inter-Zonal T20.
Two months later, Ashwani was picked by Gujarat Giants in the Women's Premier League auction for Rs 35 lakh. "The way she batted against Central Zone changed things a lot. The central zone has several Indian players and former Indian players as coaches. It brought her to the limelight," says Sethi who was with the East Zone team as a coach.
From not having money to buy kits and a place to train to being the only player from the Jharkhand state team — Indrani Roy plays for Railways — in the WPL, Ashwani has come a long way. Ashwani is yet to get a game with the Giants and Das believes she has a journey ahead of her. He keeps reiterating that she has all the makings to become an Indian international, but has a lot more work to do to get there. If her journey so far is anything to go by, safe to say Ashwani is on the right track.