Hrishita Basu

Some Lesser Known Facts About Hrishita Basu

• Hrishita Basu is an Indian cricketer who plays as a wicketkeeper batter for the India national under-19 cricket team. She first came into the limelight in 2023 as part of the Indian squad that became the inaugural champions of the ICC Under-19 Women’s T20 World Cup, beating England by 36 balls and 7 wickets.

• Basu was in a Bengali family consisting of sports enthusiasts. In an interview, she revealed that her father used to play cricket, and her mother was a gymnast. Her sister, Ihita Basu Thapa, is also an athlete, and her elder brother played cricket at the second-division club level in Kolkata, but he left the sport to focus on his studies.

• She was athletic since childhood and played multiple sports at school including basketball, football, and kho-kho. She grew up playing gully cricket with boys in Vivekanandapally in the Balitikuri area of ​​Howrah. At 13, she started her cricketing journey when she joined LRS Bangla Sports Academy, run by former Bengal captain Laxmi Ratan Shukla.

  

• At 15, she was selected for the Bengal Women’s U19 team. However, she made her debut for the team much later, post Covid-19 lockdown. In her debut match for the Bengal against Goa, she gave an impeccable performance with the bat by contributing 43 runs, an effort that led to Bengal’s victory. When she came to bat, Bengal had scored only 19 runs after losing 7 wickets. Impressed by her performance, one of her coaches gave her Rs. 1000 after the match.

• She represented India A in the Women’s Under-19 T20 Challenger Trophy (2022).

• In 2022, she played for India A in the Quadrangular Women’s U19 T20 Series, which won the tournament.

• She was named to the India U19 Women’s squad for the home series against New Zealand in November 2022 and a tour of South Africa in December 2022.

• She was named in India’s squad for the 2023 ICC Under-19 Women’s T20 World Cup held in South Africa. Other players named to the squad were Shafali Verma (captain), Shweta Sehrawat (vice-captain), Richa Ghosh (wicket-keeper), Gongadi Trisha, Soumya Tiwari, Sonia Mendhiya, Parshavi Chopra, Sonam Yadav, Mannat Kashyap, Hurley Gala, Archana Devi, Titas Sadhu, Falak Naz, Shabnam Shakil. On 29 January 2023, India won the ICC Women’s U-19 T20 World Cup, beating England by seven wickets in the final at Senwes Park in Potchefstroom, South Africa.