Titas Sadhu had a smile on her face as she walked to deep backward square leg during the opening T20I against Australia at the DY Patil Stadium. If she was a tad dejected, it did not show. Only moments earlier, she was denied her maiden five-wicket haul in international cricket but the damage was already done.
Her T20I best of 4 for 17 helped India bounce back from the 3-0 loss in the ODIs and thrash Australia by nine wickets on Friday. In the process, she became the youngest woman to pick up a four-for for India in T20Is.
It was a late decision to play Sadhu in the XI instead of a third spinner in Saika Ishaque. She was brought on as first change in the fourth over and troubled the Australia batters with her seam movement and hard lengths in the powerplay. Sadhu struck with her fifth ball by dismissing Beth Mooney, and in her second over, she had Tahlia McGrath edge one that fell just short of slip. A ball later, she eventually dismissed her - a hard slash flying straight to deep third.
On the next ball, Sadhu had Ashleigh Gardner caught and bowled for a first-ball duck with her in-between length. She could have had a fourth wicket in her next over had Richa Ghosh managed to hang on to a tough chance - an inside edge off Phoebe Litchfield's attempted scoop.
Sadhu then returned for her final over in the death - the 18th - and had Annabel Sutherland caught at mid-off a ball after she had been hit for a six. She also had Georgia Wareham given out lbw for her five-for, only for the DRS to deny her. Not even a Shafali Verma half-century in a stunning chase was to deny her the Player-of-the-Match honours, though.
"I was really excited [to play] because I had been sitting out for a while now," Sadhu said at the press conference. "I get really excited while playing a match and I was waiting for my turn to bowl. I just wanted to hit my lengths and make the ball move a little."
Her hard work with bowling coach Troy Cooley did not go unnoticed. Despite making the XI in only two of India's home white-ball games against England recently, Sadhu kept at it during the nets and each session would have a single-wicket bowling stint with Cooley standing at the striker's end a la a batter, but without a bat, and move at the crease.
"What Troy does essentially is stand there [at the stumps] and move as the batter would move," Sadhu explained about the drill. "I get a real-time feel of what the batter would do and keep following her. That helps as it gives a good simulation of what you have to do in the match."
For someone who initially did not take an interest in the sport, Sadhu has come a long way. She was used to watching a lot of cricket in Chinsurah, a city 50 kilometres to the north of Kolkata. Sadhu used to score for the matches at the Chinsurah Rajendra Smriti Sangha, a club where her father was the secretary, and run drinks for the players before a rainy day gave her father a chance to get her to bowl. There was no looking back.
"I was not interested in cricket before; I was not interested in sports per se," Sadhu had told this writer after a T20 between India Under-19 girls and New Zealand Women's Development side in December 2022 in Mumbai, a month before she played the Under-19 World Cup and won India the final with a Player-of-the-Match performance. "I was like proper han shaam ko jao, wapas aao (go to play in the evening and come back) and sit to study."
She started playing as a 13-year-old but then missed the 2018-19 season due to her 10th standard exams - needless to say, she was good in academics. The following cricket season was affected by Covid-19 and in 2020-21, she made her debut for Bengal's senior women's team.
"Initially I used to only bowl, but then especially in Bengal, getting into the team as a pace bowler is very difficult," she had said. "When I started Jhulan Goswami was playing, Rumi [Rumeli Dhar] di was playing, Suku [Sukanya Parida] di was playing. So, I had the conscious thing I will have to bat as well to get into the first XI."
A fast bowler from Bengal can perhaps never escape the glowing shadow of Goswami, which is not necessarily a bad thing. And the former India fast bowler, who retired in 2022, has been a big part of Sadhu's life.
"The first conversation I had with Jhulan di, she had said, 'stop thinking about everything else and just bowl fast. If you are a fast bowler, you have to bowl fast'. I first saw her when I was 13 and since then she has been a constant presence. Working with her is a great opportunity not a lot of people have. You get that experience. How many players have played more than 100 matches for India, for 20 years? I am not even 20 years old!"
Sadhu was picked by Delhi Capitals in the inaugural WPL auction but she did not get a game. It was a learning curve for her. "Coming from that U-19 high to sit [out] for the whole tournament was rough. After the first couple of matches, it was clear that I probably won't get a chance until very late [in the competition]. But I had this conversation with our trainer Wayne.
"In men's IPL there are 25 players. Greats sit out for two-and-a-half months. Any opportunity you get, you have to make the best out of it. I think that became the key. After the first two weeks, I just went in every practice thinking I will learn as much as I can."
Sadhu made her India debut at the Asian Games last September and also had a couple of wicketless outings against England last month. But in her first match against Australia she put on a near-perfect show. The wise one that Sadhu is, she is quick to give herself a reality check.
"Cricket is a very humbling game. Today's high can be tomorrow's low. Whoever you are, you always come back to the ground and the next match is a new match. What you have done yesterday is gone."