My friend, Arundhati: Reddy’s redemption in the eyes of Ananya Upendran

Former all-rounder recalls the comeback journey of the India pacer, who took three wickets against Pakistan in the T20 World Cup.
Arundhati Reddy, Ananya Upendran with family and friends.
Arundhati Reddy, Ananya Upendran with family and friends.(Photo | Instagram)
Updated on
10 min read

DUBAI: On Sunday, Ananya Upendran is in Nagpur, a city in central India, doing what she does best – keeping a close eye on a cricket match that was happening at the Vidarbha Cricket Stadium in Civil Lines part of the city. However, on that afternoon, the ever-professional former India A and Hyderabad all-rounder was wearing another cap. That of a friend.

When her friend and former teammate Arundhati Reddy was bowling for India, Upendran, a proud senior who was watching it on TV, couldn’t hold back tears. After all, she knew the journey India's pacer had to go through to reach that level.

Having already promised herself not to become emotional, she broke it when Reddy bagged the Player of the Match for her three wickets against Pakistan. As the 15,935-strong crowd at the Dubai International Stadium cheered their hearts out for the Hyderabad pacer every time she took her mark, it wasn't hard to see why.

However, unlike her bowling action, the stop-and-start journey that took Reddy from her hometown to Dubai was certainly not smooth. Upendran would know. "I know Arundhati because we have been teammates since 2009. We essentially grew up together," Upendran tells this daily.

"She came onto the scene five years after I started playing. I started bowling fast like all kids who want to bowl fast, I think, it was similar for her. Except she was taller and lankier, which made her a good athlete." That’s how the friendship started.

Despite having a gap of five years between them, Upendran remembers watching the youngster come up the ranks in a ride that started on Reddy's U19 debut. "I remember her U19 debut clearly and more for her batting than bowling. We were playing against Andhra in Hyderabad. We were 100 and something for six with 20 odd overs left and then she walked in very nervously. Dropped her bat a couple of times before she reached the pitch but ended up scoring some 25 runs and helped put some 60-odd runs in a partnership to get us to 180. Eventually, that was the total that we defended. Her bowling wasn’t the standout as such but it was a start of what was to come because she bowled ten overs and gave away some 20-22 runs. We happened to win that game, I think, because of her batting contribution. That stood out for me," Upendran's memory box opened up.

As cliche as it might sound, Upendran believes Reddy had that aura about her even in the age-group cricket days. Those who saw her at that time could tell that she was made for the bigger stage. She had all the attributes of someone who could be the "Next Big Thing" but more importantly she wanted to be the best version of herself.

"Arundhati was one of those players who when you watch them for the first time, you understand that there is something special about them. We knew should things align and should she pursue it, she should definitely play at the international level. She always had the attributes to be a fast bowler. She was tall, athletic, accurate and had really solid action. She wanted to bowl fast, so she would run and hit the wicket hard.

“One of the names Purnima Rau (Former India international and coach) gave her when she came into the setup was “Choti Jhulu” (after veteran pacer Jhulan Goswami). She had short hair and used to tie a headband. She thrived on that nickname because she wanted to be Jhulu di," Upendran reminisces about those early days.

Naturally, Reddy kept pursuing the dream and the stars did align finally in 2018, when she was called up for national duty during the T20I series against Sri Lanka. Ultimately, it was Upendran who had told this news to the pacer, which she did not believe in the first go. With the live streaming or the broadcast of the series not available anywhere, Upendran was vicariously living through the tweets sent out by Snehal Pradhan (former India international who was a journalist at that time) and Sri Lanka Cricket.

"The T20Is were not available to watch. Snehal was covering the game in Sri Lanka. I remember hanging onto every tweet that Snehal posted. When Arundhati walked in to bat, Snehal tweeted a photo of her. She also sent it to me. I couldn’t watch it, but I remember hanging on to every tweet that came from either Snehal or Sri Lanka Cricket and trying to live through them," Upendran chuckles recalling the story.

Despite not getting a sure place in the playing XI every time India took the field, Reddy remained part of the Indian squad for the 2020 T20 World Cup in Australia and even for the series against South Africa in 2021 which happened right after a lengthy forced break due to Covid-19 and away series against England later the same year.

Since then, however, Reddy fell off the radar for one reason or the other. For someone who was told she was made for the biggest possible stage right from the tender age of adolescence, this rejection was hard to take. "When you are constantly feeding the 12-13-year-old that you are the next big thing, as confidence-building as all these things are, it puts so much pressure on young players. Because you are coming with all these expectations, people expect you to perform like a finished product. Without realising high potential doesn’t necessarily include being ready for performance,” Upendran explains

“When she got into any setup, because she was naturally gifted, people expected her to play at the international level, even when she was just one or two years into her domestic career. I think there is a lot of pressure she dealt with right from the start of her career. When you are not able to convert that potential into performance it feels even worse because people then say, well this is a waste of talent and what not," the former India A all-rounder adds.

Not finding a place amongst the top players in the country had its share of impact on Reddy. At the same time, she was part of the star-studded Railways lineup in domestic cricket, where she again had to fight for her place in the Playing XI. The situation was not getting better and all Upendran could do was watch her friend from a distance and try to share the pain as much as she could.

"She struggled to deal with it at the start. To expect someone so young to come up with solutions at that age is unfair, but I think she found a way eventually to learn to believe in herself again. The faith in herself that she has developed over the last 3-4 years is the reason why she is here today and has found her way back into the Indian team.

"Being in and out of the squad impacted her confidence, and affected her mentally. She is probably the best person to tell this, but having seen it from the outside, I think, there were many dark days. Eventually, it was just determination to put one foot in front of the other and say, I am just going to keep practicing. Then through that process eventually realised that she still had that skill and was still good enough. People around her have helped her during this, but getting older and being able to kind of detach from results has helped massively."

Just as Reddy was trying to find her feet in the domestic circuit and was hoping to find a platform that could help her get back with a role and purpose, the Women's Premier League came into the picture. There was one more platform available, the one where competing against the domestic and other Indian players was not enough and stakes were exceptionally high, but Upendran believes Reddy threw herself into the cause of Delhi Capitals right from the word go.

"If you remember the auction, she went unsold in the first round. And then Delhi Capitals picked her up in the second round. I think she saw it as a new lease of life. At that time, she was struggling to find an opportunity to make her case for the India team. When she got picked, it was a massive relief which in turn allowed her to throw herself there. She was also surrounded by people who had a lot of faith in her. Coach Biju George has been a massive support for her. She has Jemimah (Rodrigues) and Radha (Yadav) by her side. And there were people she had played alongside who were also there. A group that valued her."

And Reddy gave it back to the group just as the season started. So much so that team captain and former Australia international Meg Lanning even said "Oh I love Aru Reddy" in the pre-match press conference of the final of the first edition, without any prompt or nudge, with a wide smile on her face.

Of course, Reddy was on cloud nine when she heard that praise and Upendran thinks it came from one of the best players and leaders in the world for a reason. "I remember it was in the first season of WPL, and Arundhati forwarded that clip to me on multiple occasions saying can you believe she said it. It is a massive confidence boost if Meg is complimentary of you. And I think it came because she threw herself in that environment and from what I hear she was in Meg’s ears a lot regarding information about domestic players and game plans. For an international-level captain, who has not seen many of these domestic players, Meg appreciated that. The fight she showed and her willingness to be a team player trying to make an impact in every game she played, as a captain, is what you want from your players," Upendran added.

Arundhati Reddy, Ananya Upendran with family and friends.
Of letting go and being brave, DC all-rounder Arundhati Reddy’s resurgence story

However, even that praise from one of the best tacticians the game has ever seen did not guarantee a place in the Indian squad for the Hyderabad Pacer. It came only when Reddy looked at her game from a different perspective, found areas on which she needed to work, and finally tried to implement those changes the way she bowls. Coach George came in to help again. "In the first season, she was almost considered a death bowler. She admitted to having struggles with variations of deliveries and being able to deliver at different phases of the game. Over the years, Arundhati identified over the last few years that she is a very good T20 bowler and she has the skill to bowl yorkers and she can bowl a decent bouncer and has a leg cutter. In T20, you are going to bowl a maximum of two overs with the new ball, so consistency is not your currency. Your currency is being unpredictable and having variations. I remember, at the camp in Delhi, Biju sir was working on her wrist position and she was getting very consistent length."

The second season of WPL is where the all magic happened. Reddy played her part with the bat and ball with more consistency, which saw the Capitals reach the final for the second time in two years. Her eight wickets were not enough for the side to clinch the title, but it made enough splash that on the basis of that performance and the ones in the other domestic competitions, the doors of the national side were slowly opening up for her and this time she got to make her ODI debut in Bengaluru against South Africa.

Having missed the T20I debut, there was no chance that Upendran was about to miss her friend's 50 over debut. "Weirdly that was the first time I had seen her play for India. I remember telling a couple of my colleagues that we needed to go early because I had a feeling that she was going to make her ODI debut. So we had to go at least an hour in advance. Just as we walked in, they were handing a cap to her and I went running down to the gallery to take a terrible quality photograph. I don’t know how to describe what I felt. It was a huge amount of pride. I feel her achieving the dream that a lot of people might have written off. Having seen how much she went through, how hard she had to work to get there, and how much being dropped from the side took a toll on her mentally. It took massive courage. This is something a lot of people wouldn’t have done. The chances of you crashing and burning out are more than you making it.”

"It is the feeling of genuine pride and a lot of tears of course. But I was just happy to see the kid I saw as a 12-year-old nicknamed Choti Jhulu, running in the blue and this time with so much more confidence and belief that she belonged there. I had seen her play on TV, but I hadn’t seen her play live and become a genuine match-winner for India. That day, that is what I saw."

A genuine match-winner for India. That is the role Reddy played for her country on Sunday. The scoreboard would tell the viewer that she took three wickets and was the pick of the bowlers, but what it would not tell you is the different amount of chances she created to add a few more wickets to her kitty, the different variations she used to make the most of her chances, the amount of running and diving she did to save a few runs. And she was smiling through it all as if she was memorising all the work that went into her finally taking that place where she well and truly belongs.

Upendran summed it up best like only a friend could. "With Arundhati, over the last few years, instead of proving people wrong, it's about proving to herself what she is capable of. While she still has a point to prove, the person she has to prove it to has changed. It is not always an external force, but she has found a way to internalise it."

It was impossible for Upendran to hide her tears from Nagpur and on Sunday, after some time she didn't even bother to think about them as they kept rolling down her face. Somewhere somehow all the cricketing know-how took a backseat. At the same time, pride and joy of watching one of her best friends living the dream took over. And it is not stopping anytime soon.

Related Stories

No stories found.