Saima Thakor, the Mumbai-born cricketer, has varied interests. When she was younger, she had aspirations of becoming a goalkeeper for her college team and then she ended up being the forward. When it came to cricket, she wished to be a wicketkeeper but took up pace bowling as it was told to her that it is relatively less expensive to bowl.
Fast-forward to the present day, and she showed some spark with her medium pacers on her ODI debut against New Zealand. In the very next game, batting at No. 10, she stitched a 70-run stand for the 9th wicket with Radha Yadav, which almost eclipsed a record in ODIs. From the aforesaid lines, it is quite evident that Saima is a woman of many talents.
For starters, let’s consider her performance with the ball in the opening India-New Zealand ODI. Although she took the prized scalp of Suzie Bates in her first over with a fine outswinger, she seemed to be struggling with a change in tactics from Smriti Mandhana. The Indian skipper for that game had brought the ‘keeper up to the stumps, forcing Saima to zoom the ball on the stumps. Unfortunately, Saima lost her line and drifted a few of her offerings down the leg-side.
However, Saima showcased that she has enough reservoirs of willpower as she picked up the scalp of Brooke Halliday in one of her later spells and ended up with redoubtable figures of 2 for 26 from seven overs. In the second ODI, Saima walked out to bat with India’s score reading 108 in a chase of 260. The lower-order batter once more showed some resilience by providing Radha support.
Even though the target proved to be too steep for the two lower-order batters, Saima’s performance gave more evidence of her mental strength. Maybe, just maybe her attitude towards cricket is a reflection of her struggles to overcome financial problems. Somewhere all those struggles seem to have emboldened her to take on challenges with the right mindset.
The second game also saw Priya Mishra earning her ODI cap from none other than Harmanpreet Kaur, the India captain. The leg-spinner imparted some decent revs on the ball and dislodged Halliday with flight and guile. She also gave a glimpse of her sharp reflexes by running out Lauren Down at the bowler’s end.
The fielding aspect of her game gains significance from the standpoint that India have generally been criticised for their lack of athleticism. Among the current lot, only Radha and Jemimah Rodrigues can be considered as good fielders. Incidentally, Radha pouched some splendid catches in the second encounter.
In that backdrop, this bilateral series versus the T20 Champions is the right platform to usher in new players. In Priya and Saima, in particular, India seem to have found a couple of pugnacious cricketers, who might just infuse a dash of zest and vigour into the side.