Women's World Cup 2022: Renuka Singh, the promising Railways pacer, who has big shoes to fill
Women's World Cup 2022: Renuka Singh, the promising Railways pacer, who has big shoes to fill
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Hailing from a small village in Shimla, Renuka Singh had an unflappable interest in cricket, one that she thinks she developed from her father, who was an ardent follower of the game. Her father passed away when she was just three, but his love for cricket — it being so deep that he named his son Vinod, after former cricketer Vinod Kambli, whom he admired to no end — left a strong impression on young Renuka, who took to the sport.
While Renuka used to play cricket around her village, it turned into something more serious only when her uncle saw her play and insisted Renuka gets enrolled into HPCA's residential academy, one started by former BCCI President Anurag Thakur. She flourished there with proper training and backing from coach Pawan Sen.
She improved her fitness, developed control over her line and length and went up the ranks to play for the Himachal Pradesh under-16 and under-19 teams, making an impression at each level. At the under-19 level, she took a hat-trick against the Karnataka side in a performance that instilled a lot of confidence in her.
Her big moment, though, came in 2018-19 when she finished the Senior Women's One Day Trophy with 21 wickets. Two years later, she would play the finals of the very same tournament, and lead her side to a win against Karnataka with a spell of 4/14.
The head coach of the Railways team, Nooshin Al Khadeer, a former India player stated in an interview with The New Indian Express that Renuka was inconsistent when she first came into the setup in 2018, but soon turned into a lethal pacer.
"She’s very different from other bowlers. Her aggression is her calmness. She understands things, doesn’t get rattled when hit for a boundary, because she knows she can make a comeback," Nooshin said.
Her 21 wickets in the Senior Women's One Day Trophy acted as a stepping stone for her to get into the India A team. Named in the India A squads to tour Australia and the quadrangular series including Bangladesh, Thailand and India B, Renuka continued her steady rise.
She was first called up to the national team for the tour of Australia in 2021, where she impressed in the T20Is with her control. Subsequently, she has displaced senior fast bowler Shikha Pandey in the ODI World Cup squad for New Zealand and will likely be the third pacer, should India go with three, behind Jhulan Goswami and Pooja Vastrakar.
Renuka had a taste of ODI action in the series against New Zealand, picking up the wickets of Sophie Devine and Frances Mackay in the fourth ODI in Queenstown. At the ODI World Cup, Renuka would be looking to fulfill the dreams of her father, who wanted his kids to take up sport and do the country proud.
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