“Every kid goes through this. When you are not good at something, you do not like it and the moment you start becoming better at it, and you start performing, you start liking it. That’s exactly what happened to me.”
Have you ever experienced something similar in your growing years? Then you share something in common with India’s latest fast-bowling prodigy, Titas Sadhu. She was not interested in sporting activities in her younger days. Yet, she ended up being the best bowler for India in their first T20I of 2024 as she rattled Australia with 4/17 in her spell.
Despite not being interested in playing the sport, Sadhu used to score the cricket games at her dad’s academy and that is how her journey started.
“So my dad started a cricket academy where I live and I used to be very involved in their matches. I used to go watch their matches and score for them. And like such, I started playing cricket and… after one point we realized that I’m not bad at it. We thought that maybe this was something worth giving a chance. So we started working on it harder,” Sadhu said in a conversation with CricketNext.
Sadhu’s statement also clarified that she didn’t feel interested only because she had never tried her hand at it and once she started, things started to go on a different note.
Sadhu, however, was never held back or denied to take up cricket professionally as a girl.
“I was always supported by my parents and everyone because I don’t think I was ever segregated from my brothers or my cousins. And the moment they realized that I was good at it, they never had that question that she’s a girl, we shouldn’t let her play. That was never in the room,” Sadhu said.
When Sadhu played against Australia on January 5, she was already quite experienced, having played the Under-19 World Cup in 2023 winning Player of the Match award and also having won the Asian Games gold medal.
However, this was the first time she was playing against the mighty Aussies. Sadhu, too, understood the gravity.
“I mean it’s an overwhelming experience. But it is also very humbling.
“The only thing that was in my mind was that I have to perform to my fullest and I will give my all in that and I will bowl my heart out because it’s not every day that you get to bowl against those stars,” Sadhu recalled the match at Mumbai’s DY Patil Stadium.
Hailing from West Bengal, the 19-year-old is expected to be the successor of India’s stalwart Jhulan Goswami. And she is leaving no stone unturned to reach the next level in her game.
While her training regimes are well-designed and set to remain with the pace at which women’s cricket is growing, as she claims, her drills with bowling coach Troy Cooley have also caught the limelight.
The coach tends to stand ahead of the wickets as a batter and move as a batter would in the match.
“So he stands where the batter would stand and keeps on moving the way a batter would and he just keeps doing that and you have to keep following wherever he is going,” Sadhu explained.
This helps the pacer to adjust to the batter’s movement in real-time.
“That is actually what is happening inside the ground,” Sadhu added.
Sadhu’s promotion from not being interested to playing the Under-19 World Cup and then playing with the national side has been quite rapid. While Sadhu didn’t expect such rapid growth, she definitely is grateful for it.
“It was always a goal to move to the senior team, but the fact that it has come so quickly, I’m really, really, I’m really grateful. If you work hard, it always pays off,” Sadhu said.
Sadhu also enjoys the camaraderie the women’s team shares inside the dressing room.
“It’s really nice. It’s very supportive, and everyone wants the other person to succeed and everyone really enjoys each other’s success which is very real and I think the way we are going it’s an amazing team. That’s all I can say,” Sadhu shared a peek into the dressing room.
As the international season has come to a halt, and the WPL is right around the corner Sadhu will look forward to have another fine season with the Delhi Capitals.
“I mean WPL is an experience which is second to none. You are playing against amazing players, you’re teaming with amazing players as well, and you get to bowl to them, you get to see their routines.
“We are different people from different cultures, the way we see cricket and the way we think of cricket is also different. So those are strategies which you can discuss and you can explore when you are in a team as such,” Sadhu narrated her WPL experience.
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