FROM THE MAG: For Abhishek Mukherjee, strange days lie ahead with his favourite cricketer Jhulan Goswami to stand down from leading India's attack after two decades
Abhishek Mukherjee is head of content for Wisden India. This is an abridged version of his article that features in our October magazine. To read the full version, grab a copy of the magazine by clicking here.
Harmanpreet Kaur had already lit up Derby with that once-in-a-lifetime unbeaten 171. I could leave the newsroom – the desk was equipped; it was my 40th birthday too – but stepping out would mean missing out on at least a few overs from Jhulan Goswami.
Chasing 282 in 42 overs to reach the 2017 Women's World Cup final, Australia were 9 for 1. On strike was Meg Lanning, her steely eyes and career record both capable of winning the battle even before the bowler began her run-up.
But the ball from Goswami angled into Lanning, landed just short of a good length, and moved just enough to hit the top of off stump.
Goswami's roar was drowned by Ian Bishop and his microphone, but on that evening – it was evening in India – none of them was a match for my war cry in front of the television set, with little care for the objectivity one expects in my profession. Worse, I did not care.
Why would I? My favourite cricketer had just bowled a legendary batter in a World Cup semi-final. If that did not evoke raw emotion, what good were emotions anyway?
Jhulan Goswami celebrates taking a wicket during the 2017 ICC Women's World Cup [Dan Mullan/Getty Images]
It is the nature of the Bengali to assign a nickname, particularly to anyone who looks anything out of the ordinary. Early into her cricketing days, Jhulan Goswami became the inevitable taal gachh, the Bengali word for the palmyra palm and a near-universal name for anyone tall in these parts of the world even when we are more politically correct than we have ever been.
About a quarter of a century later, the moniker of taal gachh sits well with her illustrious career. Goswami does not merely have the most wickets in the world. Her ODI wickets tally (252 wickets) is significantly more than anyone else's, and more than any two Indian women between them.
The gap is almost absurd, more so because India Women have never had a steady supply of seamers. Since her debut, Goswami has taken 38.5 per cent of all wickets to have fallen to Indian pacers – including in ODIs she has missed. The perennial lack of fast bowlers has, over the years, resulted in slow, low pitches in domestic cricket. That, in turn, does not encourage quick bowling.
Goswami's release point should have enabled her to bowl the wickedest of bouncers, but she never found the surfaces to hone them. During her years of toil on pitches designed for batting and spin, Goswami had to eliminate the most potent weapon of a tall fast bowler.
Her emerging from this to scale unprecedented heights and put Chakdaha on the global cricket map is, thus, nothing short of a miracle.
Jhulan Goswami congratulates Harmanpreet Kaur during the 2022 ICC Women's Cricket World Cup [Hannah Peters/Getty Images]
India's performance in the 2017 World Cup witnessed significant rise in the women's cricket fanbase back home. A year after her terrific spell in the final of the tournament, Goswami quit playing T20 internationals, letting the sport move away from her. With little to no Test cricket, she restricted herself to one format.
India needed to win their last league match, against South Africa, to qualify for the semi-finals at this year's World Cup. I was convinced that just like that Lanning wicket, just like that burst in the 2017 final, she would pull off something special.
Instead, a side strain kept her out. This, after her not missing a single match in five World Cups. She watched helplessly as India were knocked out.
If all goes well, there be one final hurrah at Lord's, the ground where she ripped the heart out of England's middle order five years ago. Jhulan Goswami will not play international cricket after that. Or perhaps she will, every time a girl defies history, pitches and tradition to bowl fast for India.
Inside our October issue of The Cricketer magazine, you'll also find:
- Tim Wigmore says England might be left behind by private investment in cricket
- Mike Brearley fears T20 and The Hundred are killing Test cricket
- George Dobell says the Andrew Strauss high performance review is anti-county
- Tanya Aldred warns England to learn lessons from last time at No.1
- Barney Ronay says The Hundred is a plasticised invention
- James Coyne says player power has never been greater
- And much, much more...
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