POTENTIAL X-FACTOR

After an injury-ridden start, all-rounder Pooja has turned the tide ahead of the global event

- GOMESH S

IRRESPECTIVE of whether it’s men’s or women’s cricket, India’s search for fast bowling allrounders is a never-ending story. And, since the exit of Rumeli Dhar, India’s struggle to find a multi-dimensional player to fill that hole – one who can bat, bowl and field has continued. At least, until Pooja Vastrakar broke into the scene in the late 2010s.

Having made her List-A debut in 2013, the lanky Madhya Pradesh all-rounder rose through the ranks rapidly in the next few years. However, her road to the top wasn’t a featherbed. Like many Indian pacers, she suffered from a series of injuries before her international career even began.

First, there was a lower back injury in 2016, followed by a major knee injury that required surgery the following year, and then, when her international call-up finally came in 2018, the celebration was cut short with another ACL tear. Back in the squad in 2019, Vastrakar largely warmed the bench through the 2020 T20 World Cup. Finally, a grade-two tear in hamstring injury followed the Covid-19 pandemic meant that Vastrakar did not get a long enough rope to establish herself in the side.