Jemimah Rodrigues: "When I started playing, I didn’t know that girls’ cricket even existed in India"

NICK FRIEND: When Mithali Raj made her ODI debut in June 1999 – in the curious setting of Milton Keynes no less, Rodrigues was 15 months from existing. If one blazed a trail, the other represents a new era

Imagine being Jemimah Rodrigues: teenager, star of India’s middle order, dreamer.

As women’s cricket continues to grow in a nation obsessed with the sport, this youngster from Mumbai is seeing her reputation surge at a similar rate. She is living a unique experience for one so young – a task both unenviable and the envy of all.

A novice of just 18 years, yet a veteran already of 35 international appearances. Rodrigues, to a degree, is a human paradox; a child not just operating in an adult’s world, but thriving and dominating in it. In a country that lives for its cricket, Rodrigues has become its latest poster-figure.

When Mithali Raj made her ODI debut in June 1999 – in the curious setting of Milton Keynes no less, Rodrigues was 15 months from existing. If one blazed a trail, the other represents a new era.

She enjoyed a stellar World T20, even if her Indian team failed to fire in a semi-final defeat against England, while earlier this year she emerged as one of the breakout stars from the precursor to a possible women’s equivalent of the Indian Premier League.

In the third game of the Women’s T20 Challenge, she struck an unbeaten 48-ball 77 for the Supernovas – the only batsman to pass 50 and one of just three who scored at a strike-rate of more than a run a ball.

It is the kind of striking, of course, that has led to Rodrigues pitching up in England, where she will represent Yorkshire Diamonds in the Kia Super League.

If the IPL remains a sporting brand streets ahead of any such English equivalent in the men’s arena, the Super League – alongside the Women’s Big Bash – exists on a different plain to any level of regular domestic competition available to Rodrigues and her Indian teammates back on home soil.

There are rumblings that this may be about to change. The success of the T20 Challenge highlighted an appetite for women’s cricket in India that many believed – and feared – was not yet widely prevalent.

“That would be a good stepping stone for Indian cricket and for women’s cricket, especially to reach a higher level. We don’t get to play many quality matches,” Rodrigues says of the possibility of a women’s IPL.

“If you are playing international cricket then it’s fine, but domestically we don’t get to play the same kind of quality. It would help all the other girls so much to develop their games, even just by sharing the dressing room with the legends.”

In a sense, that this has reached a level of discussion displays a progress that even in Rodrigues’ short career to date might once have appeared a distant notion.

“When I started playing cricket, I didn’t know that girls’ cricket even existed in India at that time,” she recalls of a period only a decade gone by.

“I always had to play with the boys. There were no separate nets for the girls.” Rodrigues, though, is at pains not to misrepresent her cricketing upbringing: that, she says, was the sole test she faced. Her family and friends encouraged her to pursue this end goal.

She speaks with the kind of bubbly enthusiasm that comes with playing out one’s dream as a reality.

^{Jemimah Rodrigues only made her international debut in 2018}

“I only started because of my two elder brothers, Enoch and Eli,” she laughs. “I was someone who could never sit quietly at home. I always had to be doing something. Because my brothers were playing cricket, I picked up the bat.”

It would not be long before the pair’s younger sister was joining them at their amateur club, practicing, training, playing almost religiously.

As with many of the great sporting tales, however, there was adversity before there was victory. A 10-year-old Rodrigues was hit on the head by an errant ball struck by another batsman as she worked on her game in the nets. She was asked not to come back.

“I started crying because I was very small at that time,” she chuckles of the memory. “The coach went and told my brother that because I was very small and because I was a girl, I shouldn’t come. He said that only boys practice here.”

Sport is an unusual beast. Rejection is a character builder. Few who have succeeded have not done so without failure – it comes with neither finality nor fatality. The young Rodrigues would use her own experience as a springboard.

“I was very sad at that time,” she admits. “My dad said: ‘Are you ready to work harder?’ I said that I was ready, so I just continued practicing.”

Four months later, while watching her brother play, she was invited to a girls’ selection trial. The youngest player present, she was picked regardless. Later that day, she was asked to take part in an Under-10s boys’ competition.

“I played that tournament and it so happened that in the semifinal I played against the same club who told me not to come anymore.

“I played and I did well, so the coach went and asked the boys who this girl was. They said that I was Eli’s sister.”

Since that tale, the Rodrigues’ trajectory has only driven itself in one direction. Stardom has followed – not that the teenager can herself believe what she has accomplished thus far.

“I still remember the first time I stepped onto the field for India in my blues,” she reflects. “The national anthem was going on and I remember it like it was yesterday. I had goosebumps. I still couldn’t believe it was happening. It felt amazing.

“I always dreamt so much of it and worked so hard and went through ups and downs and so many struggles, then finally that moment comes and you’re wearing the kit and standing there. You can’t explain that moment.”

^{Rodrigues will play for Yorkshire Diamonds in the Kia Super League}

Even as a mainstay of this new Indian side, she remains in awe of her illustrious company. In Harmanpreet Kaur and Smriti Mandhana, Rodrigues cannot help but see much of herself.

“They are the legends of women’s cricket right now,” she gushes. “They are actually an inspiration to all the other girls, including me. I think it’s just such a blessing to share the dressing room.”

Just as the pair have inspired her, so too does Rodrigues now hold a similar post. It is a quirk of celebrity and modern fame, but Rodrigues’ own position has changed; she is now the role model.

“There are many girls like me in India now,” she says of the future.

“Especially after the 2017 World Cup, it drastically changed everything. Even parents are supporting young girls in India to take up cricket as a career, which is very rare.

“The grounds where I practiced, I used to be the only girl there. Now they have started separate nets only for girls and, because of that, there are many girls coming up.

“I don’t think of it as a pressure that others look up to me. I think it motivates me to do even better.

“Now, when I look at these young girls looking up to me and wanting to do something I have done or achieve something in life, I think it is a motivation for me to get better each and every time and to set higher standards and try and be a better example for them to follow. It’s not a pressure for me but I really like it.”

Selected by her state to play hockey before plumping for cricket, it highlights the breadth of Rodrigues’ immense talents.

Her cricketing heroes, predictably perhaps, are batsmen – she grew up admiring Sachin Tendulkar, a fellow offspring of Mumbai, while she classes the elegance of Rohit Sharma as her favourite player.

Like Tendulkar, whose journeys to and from training in his early years were a hallmark of his story, Rodrigues braves Mumbai’s local trains to and from her sessions. It is a 20-minute trip – albeit in a tight carriage – or a 90-minute drive through a city world-famous for its traffic.

“It wasn’t easy because after a tiring day, carrying a cricket bag on the local trains, which are so crowded, you keep getting smashed in one corner,” she laughs.

Nothing has changed where that is concerned, however. For all her early success, Rodrigues remains deeply attached to her roots.

“It’s the fastest way to travel in Mumbai,” she says. It is how she prefers to travel – even now.

“Not many recognise me when I’m travelling – a few do, but not many.

“I do like it when people recognise me. I don’t want to be proud about it, but I like it when people come up to you and appreciate you for what you’ve done.”

To celebrate England winning the World Cup you can subscribe to The Cricketer for just £20.19. Click here to learn more