When Vrinda Dinesh, the Karnataka opener, is at the wicket, it’s difficult to miss that lissome spirit attached to her style of play. She seems to have that little bit of extra time on her hands. If the ball is shorter in length, she effortlessly pushes back to pull. If it is fuller, out comes the straight and cover drives. And if it is drifting down the leg-side, the flick is always around the corner. She isn’t afraid to play the lap either.
Zooming through Vrinda’s wide range of shots and composure, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that there was a bidding war for her at the WPL auction in Mumbai. From a base price of Rs 10 lakh, the bids went up to a whopping 1.3 crore, with UP Warriorz bagging her services.
The talented cricketer isn’t just known for playing sublime shots. She seems to be mature beyond her years. Just scratch the surface and you will see a top-order batter notching up tall scores: Vrinda accumulated 477 runs at an average of 47.7 for Karnataka in the Senior Women’s One-Day Competition this year.
In the semifinal against Rajasthan, her steady hand of 81 proved to be a decisive factor in Karnataka’s win. Just a couple of days earlier, in the quarterfinal, Vrinda had cracked a fluent 62 off 70 deliveries versus Delhi, piloting her state to a comfortable win.
It also isn’t surprising that she managed to compose a brisk 29-ball 36 in the ACC Emerging Teams Cup final against Bangladesh in Hong Kong. She had seamlessly fitted into the dynamics of the side after coming in as a replacement for the injured pace bowler S Yashasri.
This, in brief, is the success story of Vrinda. But sport is basically a microcosm of life, and every athlete would have experienced failures and rejections. Just replace December 2023 with December 2018 and you will notice there is a 180-degree turn in the narrative. That year, she had compiled 15 runs over two games against Gujarat and Bengal in the Women’s Senior One-Day Competition and was left out for more than 20 games.
Around three years later, in the same tournament, Vrinda went on to accumulate tons against Puducherry and Uttar Pradesh, alongside cracking a couple of fifties versus Baroda and Chhattisgarh. She accrued close to 350 in that tournament. Although Covid-19 came as a hurdle in her progress, Vrinda hasn’t looked back.
She comes from a cricketing background. Her father and brother have played club cricket, while Bharath Bhushan, her uncle, represented Karnataka at the junior level. Vrinda is also a huge admirer of the legendary Meg Lanning.
Incidentally, just glance through a compilation of Lanning’s square and cover drives and compare it with Vrinda’s shots, and it can be observed that the youngster has modelled her game on her idol. Vrinda now has the chance to impress her idol when the UP Warriorz come up against Delhi Capitals in the WPL 2024.