D Vrinda with senior one-day challengers trophy
D Vrinda with senior one-day challengers trophy(Photo | Express)

Injury a boon for Vrinda and her transformation

The Karnataka batter believes the break due to injury taught her patience and made her calmer which eventually helped her game.
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CHENNAI: When D Vrinda got ruled out of the 2024 Women’s Premier League due to a shoulder injury, it came as a huge blow to the Karnataka batter. She came into her first season of WPL with a lot of momentum and was keen to make a mark for UP Warriorz. But due to the injury, all came crashing down. For it was not just about the WPL. Vrindra would go on to miss the multi-day domestic tournament, India A of Australia, undergo surgery, and not play cricket for several months that followed.

Although she was disappointed at the time, ten months on, Vrinda feels the injury came as a blessing in disguise. She is all smiles after becoming the player of the match in the final of the senior women's one-day challengers, helping Team C beat Team A to win the title at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai. She had sensational one-dayers for Karnataka scoring 380 runs at 63.33 average and 146.71 strike rate and followed it up with a stellar show in the challengers.

When she was hit by the injury a year ago, Vrinda decided to take some time off. Since she did not have any choice, Vrinda embraced it gleefully. She went on a holiday with her family and then did a solo trip to Kedarnath, walking on the hills and enjoying every moment she had. It helped her develop patience, become calmer and when she came back, Vrinda was a different person. “She came back with a different perspective about life. She took cricket as part of her life and not as her life,” recalled Kiran Uppoor, Vrinda’s coach at the NICE academy. “When she started practicing, it was a lot more relaxed, a lot more calmer, and a lot more specific. There was no target-driven, result-orientated stuff. It was just her coming and enjoying her cricket. That was a brilliant change and that made her even freer in the mind,” he added.

The change also helped in her decision-making. She was not afraid of taking risks, she was not going to wait till the field to spread out to take on bowlers or hang in there and pile on later. Vrinda started taking the game head-on. And it reflected in her range of strokes over the past year. She credits the injury and reset of her shoulders for it. “My shoulder has sat back in a good position. I was injured prior to this also but probably that helped my game. The injury has helped my game. It's always nice to play around 360 degrees. Why not use it? Sometimes it's an easy run, sometimes you have to work hard. It's good to have an all-round game,” said Vrinda.

Having been around the domestic circuit and spending time with UP Warriorz in the WPL, she understands the needs of the game and the direction in which it is going. “I also believe that's the right way to play the game,” said Vrinda when asked about being proactive and having the intent with the bat. “Also seeing how men’s cricket, I mean we cannot compare ourselves, but that's how they're playing the game. That's how they find themselves to be successful. That's something we have adapted to as well. And That's how I think we're going to go about it from now on,” she added.

If her cricketing transformation was one part of it, Vrinda has also come a long way as a person. From the disciplined, unassuming youngster who went about her business, she has grown into the matured senior with whom other youngsters in the academy speak.

Uppoor felt she became a different person after the injury. “The guys over there (NICE) also want to have a conversation. At the end of the day, she played matches with these guys. In fact, in a few matches, when they felt that the opponent team was pretty good, they felt they needed Vrinda to play for them. The motto for us was no thinking and no analysis. I told her, we are going to trust each other. I'm going to trust your instincts. I'm going to trust your decision-making. And we're not going to analyse about it. We're just going to enjoy playing. And that's how we entered the season,” said Uppoor.

And it worked out well for Vrinda. So much so that she has younger players and teammates coming to her and asking what has changed. While Vrinda credits the WPL, she also knows the amount of work that has gone behind the scenes.

“The WPL experience helped me. Putting all that together, have the right type of training. Of course, NICE has really helped me and Kiran sir and now my trainer Siddharth. They have got me to work on all aspects of the game. And also having the right mindset. Trying to be a lot more joyful and happy has helped me,” she says.

If the 2024 season came as a breakthrough season for a youngster, Vrinda believes is more than prepared for the 2025 edition of the WPL and cannot wait for the tournament to begin. “This year, I feel like I'm there, I’m there for UP Warriors,” she signed off.

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