Women's World T20 2018: Powered by visualisation and mental preparation, Arundhati Reddy aims to craft own identity

“He was born to play cricket,” Ravi Shastri recently said of Prithvi Shaw after the latter had bagged the Player of the Series Award in his first international outing. From the moment he faced his first ball in international cricket, Shaw looked like he ‘belonged’. Not a hair was out of place. He didn’t take a step wrong. His coach was right about him— the game was in his blood. Arundhati Reddy is cut from much the same cloth as Shaw. Although she is a few years older, and her rise was not as dramatic, from the moment she entered Hyderabad’s Gymkhana Grounds for her first practice session with the state team, it was clear that she had ‘potential’. At 11-years-old, she was rushing senior players for pace, getting the ball to rear awkwardly off a length, and generally being an overenthusiastic young fast bowler. Her wiry frame, long limbs, bounding run-up, high release, and exaggerated follow through meant she was often likened to her idol, Jhulan Goswami. [caption id=“attachment_5480091” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Arundhati Reddy received her maiden cap from Mithali Raj in the 1st T20I against Sri Lanka. Image courtesy @BCCIWomen on Twitter[/caption] Incidentally, it was this likeness that Ramesh Powar, head coach of the Indian women’s team, picked out as one of the reasons he chose to stick with Reddy as the only pacer in the XI through her first international series— five T20I matches against Sri Lanka. “I think she (Reddy) is one bowler who can in future maybe replace Jhulu (Jhulan Goswami),” Powar told Women’s CricZone after his team whitewashed Sri Lanka. “That’s what I’m looking at. You’ll not get (a) second Jhulan, but you can try to get someone close to her. I thought that way, our selector also thought that way, so we are backing her.” Not one to take praise or criticism too seriously, Reddy is determined to make her own mark on the cricketing world. “Honestly, I don’t really think about it that much,” says the 21-year-old. “I feel nice that sir thinks I am capable of it, but then she (Goswami) has been playing for so many years. It is just the start for me.” *** ‘Bouncebackability’— a term coined by Iain Dowie, former manager of Crystal Palace Football Club—meaning, the ability to quickly recover from a setback, is essential for athletes. Failures are part and parcel of sport, but it is a player’s ability, or willingness, to overcome that struggle, that reveals character. This, Powar believes, Reddy has in bucket-loads. “No matter how many runs you give, the way you come back into the game is important for us,” he said. “The way she did in the last T20, it shows the character, and (as a coach) you look for that character.” Barely six months after her Under-19 debut, Reddy was rushed into the Hyderabad senior team and earmarked as one for the future. In India, such fast-tracking of talent always comes with heightened expectation. Potential doesn’t always lead to performance, and Reddy found quite early in her career that she would have to learn to deal with setbacks. While the fast bowler showed flashes of brilliance, she was unable to string together consistently good results. Normally a very relaxed person, who likes to be the life of the party— talking, laughing, and being loud— Reddy was quite intense on the field through her early years. To those who knew her, it didn’t seem natural, but they shrugged it off as an ‘on field persona’. As the years went by, it seemed that intensity was having an adverse effect on her performance. “Honestly, I think I put a lot of pressure on myself at that time,” she recalls. “As one of the main players in the (Hyderabad Under-19) team, I was expected to do well and maybe that’s why I started thinking too much or tried to change my game. It is possible that I tried too hard. I wasn’t always true to myself.” If one thing stands out about Reddy, it is her work ethic. She is almost pig-headed in her pursuit of excellence. Often the first to arrive and the last to leave training, she put in extra hours at the gym and on the ground, trying to hone her skills in preparation for that elusive breakthrough season. Finally, in 2017, when she was gripped by the fear that her time was running out, Reddy was employed as a junior clerk by South Central Railways. The security of a job and a forced shift from Hyderabad to the Indian Railways team seemed to do the trick for the allrounder. In the 2017-18 season, she took 23 wickets and accumulated 229 runs in 14 matches across age-groups and formats, and also registered her maiden five-wicket haul— 5 for 10 against Rajasthan in the Under-23 one-day tournament. “I was always in my comfort zone when I was in Hyderabad,” she says. “But in a new team like Railways, there was no room for complacency. Opportunities were rare, and I had to be ready to take my chance when it came. I wanted to be the best in the team. I wanted to prove to myself and all my teammates that I was a match winner.” Reddy spent the season playing alongside a host of international players, observing, interacting with and learning as much as she could from them. “There are so many India players in the team… They are all so professional. When you get to speak to them, they emphasise more on how you should be prepared mentally more than anything else.” Long hours at the ground, turned to short, intense sessions aimed at improving one aspect of her game at a time — “quality over quantity” became the mantra. The work ethic remained the same, but it was about working smart, rather than working long. Without dropping her guard, she began to relax a little and trust that her natural ability and preparation would help her through the games. Reddy was finally beginning to deliver on the promise she had shown all those years ago, and the selectors were taking note. An India A call-up, followed by a Challenger series where she dismissed Mithali Raj, meant the allrounder had done enough to find herself on the flight to Sri Lanka. There, she impressed Powar with her Goswami-like qualities— picking up four wickets in five matches, also taking three catches and effecting three run outs. Heading to the West Indies for her first major tournament, Reddy is focused on the mental side of her game. “I never used to plan too much in domestic cricket… I didn’t understand the need to,” she laughs. “After coming here (Indian team) we all sit and discuss how to bowl to each batter. There should be purpose behind every ball you bowl…That is something that has changed for me. Now, I watch a lot of videos of how certain bowlers set up an over, or how they bowl to specific batters. Visualisation is another thing I have started doing…. I realise now it is more about mental preparation and planning, rather than only doing the physical work.” In many ways, life has somewhat come full circle for Reddy. She began playing the game in September 2008 after watching MS Dhoni and his all-conquering warriors win the inaugural ICC World T20 in South Africa. Almost exactly ten years later, she made her international debut, in September 2018. Now, as the women embark on their first-ever stand-alone World T20 campaign, Reddy will hope she can put in performances that will not only help craft her own identity but also inspire young girls to take up the game — just as she was inspired all those years ago.