Arundhati Reddy

Some Lesser Known Facts About Arundhati Reddy

• Arundhati Reddy is an Indian Cricketer. She made her debut for the Indian women’s national cricket team in the Women’s Twenty20 series against Sri Lanka on 19 September 2018.

• She was an ardent cricket fan since childhood and got inspired by the victory of the Indian men’s national cricket team in the 2007 men’s T20 World Cup.

  

• She used to play gully cricket with her brother, cousins, and neighbours’ kids in her locality, and she used to skip school to watch cricket matches.

• Her whole family were massive cricket fans and both her mother and brother encouraged and supported her decision to be a cricketer from the beginning.

• Her mother, Bhagya Reddy, used to be a volleyball player during her college days, but she could not continue to play and had to quit due to some reason. She then became a schoolteacher. So Bhagya made sure Arundhati was able to achieve her dream of being a cricketer.

• Bhagya used to take Arundhati to the training sessions both during the day and at night, and she would wait for Arundhati to finish her training at night, and they would then go home together. Bhagya bought her a scooter when Arundhati attained the legal age to drive; she did that to help Arundhati avoid the tiring bus journey on her way back home from training. ^[8]The News Minute

• After realising Arundhati’s potential and passion for the game, her mother contacted one of her cousins, who was a professional cricket player, and enrolled her at the academy, where he used to train.

• She grew up idolizing Rahul Dravid and wanted to be a wicketkeeper like him, but the coach noticed her bowling skills and transitioned her into a medium-fast bowler. He was so impressed by her bowling skills that when Arundhati informed him about her desire to become a wicketkeeper he told her that she could discontinue his coaching if she did not want to be a bowler.

• In an interview, Arundhati revealed that she was a massive fan of cricketer Dale Steyn. She added that tennis player Serena Williams was one of the athletes she respected the most.
  

  

  

• In January 2010, she made her List-A debut for Hyderabad at the age of twelve and had played about twelve List-A matches by the age of sixteen.

• She closely followed the bowling styles of Mitchell Starc and Jasprit Bumrah and looked up to them. ^[9]Female Cricket – Website

• At first, she was not convinced of giving up her dream of being a wicketkeeper. Arundhati gave up her dream of becoming a wicketkeeper after she saw the competition for places in the team and shifted her focus to being a bowler, which gave her direct entry into the team during her U19 days and she gradually picked up the interest. ^[10]Female Cricket – Website

• She was named the captain of the Hyderabad Women’s Under-19 Cricket team at the age of fifteen and was a key player of the squad. She was an instrumental player for the South Zone Under-19 Women’s Cricket team.

• In an interview, she revealed that she used to be superstitious at the beginning of her career and used to wear the same match kit for an entire tournament if she played well, and added that she stopped the habit when she realised it was futile.

• She was sent to Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA) to attend a summer camp. She was coached by Savita Nirala at HCA. Nirala trained her to be an all-rounder with an emphasis on her bowling.

• In 2014, Arundhati first met her idol Jhulan Goswami in Bangalore, India, during the South African women’s team tour of India. Coincidentally, Goswami announced her retirement on the same day as Reddy received her first-ever international selection, and Reddy was regarded by the fans as the one to fill the shoes of the veteran bowler.

• She was mentored by the former Indian cricketer Nooshin Al Khadeer, and Arundhati became a regular in the Railways women’s cricket team. Reddy also worked with former Indian cricketer Alfred Absolem to improve her bowling pace and techniques. In 2019, she scored a half-century against Delhi.

  

• She performed well in the Under-23 Inter Zonal Tournament held in March 2018 and picked up nine wickets in four matches and impressed the international selection committee. She recorded her first five-wicket haul against Rajasthan in the Under-23 section.

• On 23 August 2018, she was chosen for the T20I series against Sri Lanka, and this was Reddy’s first-ever international call-up. ^[11]International Cricket Council – Official Website

• Former Indian national women’s team captain Mithali Raj used to train with Reddy at the St. John’s Sports Coaching Foundation in Secunderabad, Telangana, India. Mithali and Arundhati were both part of the South-Central Railway women’s team and were also trained by R.S.R. Murthy. In an interview, Reddy labelled Mithali as her mentor and pointed out that Mithali helped her to improve different aspects of her game and took care of her when she first played for the Indian national women’s cricket team in 2018.

  

• In an interview, Reddy revealed that she chose 20 as her jersey number because it was her mother’s birthdate.

  

• On 19 September 2018, Arundhati made her T20I debut against Sri Lanka. She bowled three overs in which she gave 37 runs and took a wicket. She came to bat at number eight and scored two runs from 9 balls and was caught out by Kavisha Dilhari when she tried to hit the ball of Udeshika Prabodhani. She played in all five matches of the series and delivered top performances and impressed the selectors.

  

• In an interview, she labelled Australian cricketer Meg Lanning as the toughest opponent she ever faced and added that it was difficult to bowl against Lanning.

• She loves sweet dishes, especially desserts.

• One of her favourite cricket memory was when she received her first international cap from Mithali, with whom she grew up playing cricket ^[12]Female Cricket – Website under the mentorship of R.S.R. Murthy.

• Arundhati was inducted into the Indian squad for the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup tournaments of 2018 and 2020. The 2018 ICC Women’s T20 World Cup, held in the West Indies, was Reddy’s first major tournament. The Indian team reached the finals of the 2020 ICC Women’s T20 World Cup; however, she was not in the playing eleven.

• She was part of the Railways women’s cricket team that won the BCCI Senior Women’s Inter Zonal One Day Trophy (50 overs) in 2023. In the pre-quarterfinals against Tamil Nadu, she put in a brilliant performance and took 4 wickets for 30 runs.

• Arundhati Reddy went unsold in the first round of the BCCI Women’s Premier League (WPL) auction. She was then purchased by the Delhi Capitals for her base price of Rs. 30 Lakhs. ^[13]NDTV ^[14]The Hindu