Published By: Saksham Mishra

Pooja Vastrakar, when flair meets performance

Pooja Vastrakar has always had extraordinary talent. It is only now that she has started converting promise into performance.

Top of the charts

Vastrakar was the highest wicket taker in the women's T20 Challenge 2022 and picked up six wickets from three matches. From the 10 overs she bowled, Vastrakar conceded 71 runs while bowling at an economy rate of 7.10.

She had an average of 11.83 and maintained a strike rate of 10. Her six wickets included the best of 4 for 12.

Underrated batting talent

She has been spectacular with the bat as well in recent times and has often pulled India out of trouble. One can clearly remember how Pooja Vastrakar and Sneh Rana led the fight back for India in the key clash between India and Pakistan in the 2022 ODI World Cup.

She then played an impressive hand in the slog overs of India's match against Australia as well and took the team to a formidable total. What also comes to mind is her brilliant knocks against Australia on the team's recent tour of the country.

If she can take some of the best bowlers in the world to the cleaners, there is little doubt that she has a lot of potential and it is now up to the Indian team management to nurture her and make sure that she gets enough opportunities with bowl bat and ball at different phases of the game to develop her fully as she has the potential to turn out to be a real x-factor for the team going forward.

Best effort

Vastrakar's best performance of 4 for 12 came in the very first match of the women's T20 Challenge 2022 after Supernovas put 163 runs on the board which also included a 12 ball 14 run effort from Pooja Vastrakar.

She helped dismiss the Trailblazers for 114 to take the team to a comprehensive 49 run victory. This is what she had to say after receiving the player of the match award.

"Just wanted to hit the right areas with my bowling and try and get breakthroughs. Ball was coming out of my hand well during practice, so I was confident. After batting, we realised it is not the easiest surface to play, so we wanted to restrict them to a low score in the powerplay. The team bonding has been great thanks to a few practice and sessions we’ve held together, always good to play with people from all over the world."