Neha Tanwar

Some Lesser Known Facts About Neha Tanwar

• Neha Tanwar is a professional Indian woman cricketer.

• Neha grew up as an athlete. Since childhood, she was involved in sports activities. She used to play Kabaddi, Kho Kho, Shot Put, Volleyball, and every other sport which was there in her school, but not cricket.

• In 2003, things took a new turn when Neha went to appear for Athletics trial for taking admission in Delhi’s Maitreyi  College under sports quota; however, the coach who was to take the athletics trials was not present, so she decided to give cricket trials. When her turn came to bat, she closed her eyes and hit the ball with sheer power, selectors got impressed seeing her strength and selected her in the college’s team.

• In the beginning, the team management assigned her the role of snip bowler; however, she gradually honed her batting skills and was elevated to an opening batswoman. She then went on to play as an opener for the college team, the University team, the state team, and then in the Ranji tournaments. When her graduation finished in 2006, Neha, who had taken up cricket just to get enrolled in the college, had already developed a fascination for the sport.

• In 2010, she was selected to play in the 2010-11 Challenger Trophy. Neha’s performance in the Challenger Trophy helped her break into the Indian Women’s team in 2011.

• Just a month after her international debut, she got married in Delhi.

• Unfortunately, Neha Tanwar could only manage to play two T20 and five One-Day International matches for India. She played all of these matches in a time span of seven months (between January and July), and thereafter, she couldn’t get a chance to represent the national side. Although she continued to play domestic matches.

• Post the news of her pregnancy in February 2014, Neha decided to retire from cricket and shift her entire focus towards her family. The same year in October, she gave birth to a baby boy.

• Her fascination for cricket couldn’t keep her away from the sport for much time; however, to make a comeback, she underwent a lot of struggles and extreme practice sessions so as to bring back her batting touch and shed the extra 20 kgs of weight which she had put on during her pregnancy days. Talking about it in an interview, she said,
  I had just one thing in my mind “I have to do this anyhow and make sure that I just do not feel ashamed of myself when I look into the mirror.” Playing is way too far. The first step must be fitness.

  

• The next year, in 2015, she made a comeback in the Ranji trophy 2015-16 season but failed to leave an impact. She persistently worked on her batting skills for another year and displayed some wonderful performances in the next season.

• Owing to her performances in Ranji Trophy season 2016-17, she was rewarded with a call-up to play against Bangladesh-A side in 2020.

• Her roommates, with whom she used to stay during the matches, say that Neha would often sleep-talk about cricket during the nights. In an interview, Neha narrated an amusing anecdote, wherein, one night, she was repeatedly saying while sleeping, “isme do run aayenge do run aayenge,” bothered by this, her friend woke her up and said, “are need me hi bana legi saare run, kal match hai, kal bana lena.” ^[7]YouTube

• She is one of the few female cricketers who managed to return to professional cricket even after giving birth to a child.

• Neha Tanwar is an Indian railways employee.

• In July 2020, Neha Tanwar appeared on “Cricket With Queens” and talked about her inspiring life journey.

• Neha is often called in by several TV channels to talk about cricket. In September 2020, Neha became part of a cricket talk show, “Wah Cricket,” telecast on ABP News. Another female cricketer, Latika Kumari, and the legendary Kapil Dev also appeared on the show.

View this post on Instagram

Dekhiye hamare sath WAH CRICKET shaam 7 baje. . #abpnews #wahcricket #cricket #news #cricketer #ipl2020 #ipl

A post shared by Neha Tanwar (@imnehatanwar) on Sep 20, 2020 at 12:26am PDT