Mannat Kashyap

Some Lesser Known Facts About Mannat Kashyap

• Mannat Kashyap is an Indian cricketer who is known for being part of the ICC Under-19 Indian Women’s team that won the T20 World Cup in South Africa in 2023.

• In an interview, she said that she was not good at studies and used to score fewer marks than her siblings.

• When she was young, she used to play cricket with the boys in their neighbourhood. In an interview, her father said that she would often ask him to bring ice cream after her gully matches. Her father never stopped her from playing cricket, but her mother was worried about her studies being affected.

• Some years later, one of Mannat’s cousins, Nupur Kashyap saw her bowling and suggested her parents get her enrolled in a cricket academy, but at that time there were not many academies that trained girls. So, they took her to Cricket Hub Academy on Sirhind road where she began her training. Her cousin, Nupur who played for Punjab Women’s cricket team also used to train with her in the academy. In an interview, she said that she was the only girl in her academy who played cricket. She was nervous in the beginning, but all the boys in the academy supported her a lot.

• In 2018, she started her training under Sunil Saggi and Juhi Jain. She started practising bowling as a pacer and even got an injury because of which she had to be on rest for some time. Later, she switched to spin. In an interview, her coach said that it was difficult in the beginning because she was a left-arm orthodox spinner, but after some time, she learned how to bowl from right to left of the pitch. For her performance in the World cup, her coach said that they used to make her bowl 200-300 bowls to improve her stamina.

• In December 2022, she played the junior World Cup as a part of the India U-19 cricket team against South Africa where she ran out Jenna Evans at the non-striker end, but the appeal was withdrawn by captain Shafali Verma.

• In the 2023 ICC U-19 Women’s T20 World Cup final, she took one wicket against England women’s U-19 team. She took a total of nine wickets in the tournament for the Indian U-19 team.

• After winning the world cup, it was announced that she would be honoured by Punjab Cricket Association during the general body meeting. In an interview, Dilsher Khanna, secretary of the Punjab Cricket Association talked about her and said,
  

  Mannat Kashyap has done the state and country proud. Punjab Cricket Association will honour Mannat during the general body meeting in the presence of all the members of the apex council and the executive committee.”

• On 30 January 2023, Punjab Education Minister Harjot Singh Bains met Mannat’s parents and congratulated them on the achievement of their daughter. He also assured her parents that the Punjab government would take care of all the expenses spent on Mannat for her coaching in the future.

• In an interview, she said that sometimes she has to compromise on the things that she likes. Stating an example she said that when she goes to school, her friends offer her to eat a burger, but she never eats it because of her diet.

• In an interview, she said that her school has supported her a lot and they are very happy with her performance. In the interview, she further added,
  

  The school has supported me a lot and they are also happy that I will hopefully go on to play the U-19 World Cup. But even after the games are over, I am preparing for my Board examinations. I am carrying my text books and also learning online.”

• She has known Harmanpreet Kaur for a long time and gets a lot of motivation from her. In an interview, she talked about her and said,
  

  I have learned from Harry di how to be calm and cool. On the field, I admire her game sense and I have tried observing her game and I implement those learnings in my game.”

• On 9 December 2023, Gujarat Giants picked Mannat Kashyap for a fee of Rs. 10 lakh in the 2024 Women’s Premier League auction, held in Mumbai.