DURBAN: The last time Shreyanka Patil took the field for Royal Challengers Bengaluru, she won them their first Women’s Premier League title, taking 4/12 in the final against Delhi Capitals. That, however, was on March 17, 2024. Almost two years have elapsed since and Patil, in this time, has gone through a roller-coaster in her life.
The youngster’s career was on the rise in the months that followed as she played the T20 World Cup in the United Arab Emirates. But things spiralled shortly after. Patil spent 14 months in a whirlwind, suffering one injury after another, spending almost a year in rehab and missing an entire season of WPL and the ODI World Cup at home.
Through all this, one of the things that kept her going was to get back on the field for RCB and win them the WPL trophy again. She made a comeback for Barbados Royals in the Women’s Caribbean Premier League in September 2025 and helped them win the title, starred for her state team in the domestic set-up, and now Patil is back where she belongs — with RCB — as she gears up to take on Mumbai Indians in the opening game on Friday.
Through her time away from the field, Patil had left cricket behind, with doubts creeping in about whether she would play again. Cricket, however, did not leave her. Not in a literal sense. Even when she was not playing, Patil spent time visualising and manifesting to keep herself going. And that helped her shed the nerves when she got back on the field eventually. “Though I wasn't playing for so long, it was easy for me to get back on the field and say, ‘okay, I've done this my whole life’. So even though I didn't play for a few months, I was still playing in my mind. I was just thinking, ‘okay, how am I going to get Hayley Matthews out? How am I going to get Nat Sciver-Brunt out? So all of that was still happening in my mind. I was just visualising, manifesting, whatever it was. So I was still playing in my mind,” Patil explained in a media interaction on Wednesday.
Time spent at CoE
What also helped her is meeting other elite cricketers at the CoE and sharing their life experiences. From Suryakumar Yadav, Renuka Thakur, Mohammed Shami, Pooja Vastrakar to Jasprit Bumrah, she spent her time making friendships which put things in perspective. Patil recalled her conversation with Bumrah about bowling under pressure and how the pace juggernaut's advice helped her. “He's a sweet guy. He also told me that this is okay, what you're going through, everyone will go through. ‘You're facing this at a very young age. So just be in it. Don't fight it. So that was lovely advice from him, because he's also gone through a lot of injuries, missed out on a lot of cricket,” she said.
The 23-year-old from Bengaluru also explained how special it was to be retained by RCB especially after having not played any competitive cricket for almost a year. “They've been checking on me, what I'm up to, just giving me that confidence, saying no matter what, you're the best. It was like a hard statement for them to say it and I actually felt it. And we had some conversations. Smriti (Mandhana) was constantly talking to me about my injury, where it is going and then how I'm doing in my practice sessions. We were all in touch, and they really helped me. It was not like a contract with RCB or something, but it was more than that. It was more like a family concern for me. That coming from them made me feel even more special,” she said.
When Patil takes the field on Friday for RCB, it will be 663 days since the 2024 WPL final. The time away has only made her stronger as she has come back better equipped and matured to deal with the pressure and realities of not just sport and life. Expect her to don the pink headband, left foot perpendicular to the surface at the top of the mark, before bowling a classic off-break to castle the stumps in the RCB jersey a lot more this season.
