Confident Divya set for leadership role in Senior T20 league  

Express News Service

CHENNAI: For Divya G, the Karnataka batter, being named as the captain of Heron Sports in the Falcons Golden Jubilee T20 Tournament in January 2021 was the beginning of a new journey. Organised by former India captain Shantha Rangaswamy, it was the biggest domestic tournament for women cricketers since the pandemic broke that featured several India internationals. And for Divya, personally, it was the first big event since she started training with Roshan Bachan, a former international athlete and para athletics coach at his academy. 

But when she was handed a team that was filled with domestic players, Divya jokingly asked Rangaswamy why she wasn’t given any international stars and the reply she got shook her a bit. “The only thing she said was: ‘For me, you are the star. Why don’t you look at it that way? You can take the team through. Why do you need a star there?’,” recalls Divya. 

“It was a wake up call. I was expected to do a lot and they believed me I was that star. That’s when the reality hit me that I had nothing else and will have to take the team through,” said Divya, who smashed 276 runs in seven innings at a strike rate of 125.45. As she finished at the top of the run charts, her side lost to KiNi RR Sports in the final. 

Taking confidence from the performance, Divya went into the 2020-21 senior women’s one-dayers with high hopes. But, she had a middling tournament, scoring 198 runs from six matches. Divya went back to the drawing board, trying to address what went wrong. She felt there was a constant conundrum between being aggressive and anchoring the innings. 

The 26-year-old turned to her trainer Roshan, with whom she worked hard on fitness over the next few months. “Fitness plays an important role. Most of them came and told me that I am not able to convert my fifties into hundreds because of my fitness. I took it personally and I went to my trainer and asked, ‘you have to do something about this’. He put me through a few months of program. I was in a shell, I blocked myself from everything else. I believed in my trainer and never questioned as I knew that he was the one who’s going to change my personality,” she reflects.

“He has trained my mind and fitness to the extent where I can just concentrate on my game. When a person in your life is there to take care of everything and you just have to focus on your game, from there my career has taken a leap. He’s been a game changer for me.”

Divya started reaping rewards when the 2021-22 senior one-dayers came along. She hit 346 runs in six innings, averaging 86.50. She played a crucial role in Karnataka’s journey to the final, where they lost to Railways. But her performance had earned Divya a place in the Challengers Trophy for the first time since 2015. However, she had a forgettable tournament.

Having been a part of the Karnataka senior side since 2011, Divya has grown leaps and bounds in the last two years. As a reward, she has been named as deputy to Veda Krishnamurthy, who will lead the state in the senior T20 league.