CHENNAI: When Jintimani Kalita came to renowned cricket coach Nagesh Gupta in Chandigarh, three years ago, the then 19-year-old had already marked a few milestones. By then, she had come up the ranks swiftly in Assam and played two years of Women's Premier League with Mumbai Indians.
A live-wire on the field, and a bundle of energy off it, Kalita — a seam-bowling all-rounder — however, wanted more. Gupta remembers the one question that kept coming up from Kalita. "Whenever we spoke during training, her main question was always, 'sir, I want to move forward, but I need a plan for it'," Gupta told The New Indian Express.
The next two years (2023-2025) went into just that as Gupta and Kalita worked towards her overall development. And it all came to fruition on Friday as Kalita made her India debut in the first ODI against Zimbabwe in Vadodara. The all-rounder bowled five overs and finished with 0/23 as India restricted Zimbabwe to 197. In response, Pratika Rawal scored a breezy century (100 n.o) and helped India get over the line along with Shafali Verma (64 n.o off 33 balls).
Watching it all from Chandigarh, Gupta was a happy man. He recalls how Kalita was always blessed with the fitness and power to excel as a cricketer. "Her bowling pace was good, and in batting, she could hit the ball hard. We worked on technical aspects of her batting and added variations to her bowling (such as slower balls and cutters) since her action was already quite good. A major focus was developing her in-swing, which she didn't bowl much at the time, to help her take more wickets," Gupta explained.
"We used a lot of drills, including a double-coloured ball specifically designed for swing practice. We worked on consistency at the crease so she would deliver from the exact same spot instead of drifting around. We corrected her habit of jumping out during delivery, which used to hurt her balance," he added.
Knowing the talent she possessed, Gupta — who has played a crucial role in Amanjot Kaur and Kashvee Gautam's career — advised her to be patient. "When her chance came, it would come all at once," he told her. And it did.
At the start of this year, she was selected for Rising Stars Asia Cup and then England tour with India A followed by the Australia A series. The India call-up too finally arrived for the T20Is against Zimbabwe but she did not get a chance. Just a day before the first ODI, she replaced injured Renuka Singh and the dream became a reality on Friday as she received her cap from Harmanpreet Kaur — someone she idolised growing up in Mangaldoi, Assam.
The road to this point has been nothing short of extraordinary. For her, cricket came along by chance. The eldest in the family of four, she used to drop her younger brother at a cricket coaching centre and one day the coach asked her to join as well. After some convincing from the coaches, her parents eventually obliged. And thus began her journey. Like many young female cricketers in the 2010s, she trained with boys, played with borrowed kits. With her father working as a fourth-grade employee with the state government, affording all the cricketing gear was not an easy task in the early days.
First came the consistent performances for Assam and the WPL contract with MI in 2023 for `10 lakh which provided a massive relief for her and the family. “It is really big. I am the eldest in the family. Whatever I got from my parents, I could give back. In 18 years, to make such money and give it to my family is really big. It feels good that I can take care of my needs by myself and focus on taking my cricket career forward,” Kalita had told this daily at the time. She went on to become the first woman from Assam to play in the T20 franchise league, and now, second from the state after Uma Chetry to represent India.
This, however, is just the beginning. And as she did over the last three years, Kalita will keep doing everything in her power to move forward and bring laurels to the country in the years to come.
Brief scores: Zimbabwe 197 in 49.5 ovs (Biza 62; Charani 4/23, Kalita 0/23) lost to India 200/1 in 27.1 ovs (Rawal 100 n.o, Verma 64 n.o; Chare 1/58).
