Yastika, Kranti, and day with Lord’s honours board

Just days before the special one-off Test at Lord’s, Yastika Bhatia was dropped from India’s setup for the Asian Games. It seemed like Yastika’s life went from bad to worse, considering how she had spent a long time away on the sidelines with an injury. When presented with the opportunity of a comeback, it barely lasted, with scores of 3, 15 and 23.

Things got worse, when the left-hander couldn’t do much in the first innings, falling cheaply for a 17-ball 12, which amplified the pressure around her. It could have easily got into her, and she could have very well succumbed to daunting pressure. But that’s where champions are made.

“Six months ago, I was in a very different place. And if you had told me then I would have my name on the honours board, I wouldn’t have believed it,” Yastika said after her heroic knock of 113, becoming the first Indian women’s batter to score a second-innings century after 1985. 

During her stay at the crease, the left-hander played quite a few elegant strokes, one better than the other, showing why Indian selectors rated her in the first place.

Alongside Smriti Mandhana, one of India’s best batters, Yastika didn’t just rebuild her form; she rebuilt her confidence to take on one of the best bowling units in world cricket. 

“I had a conversation with her, and she just looked at me, and she said this is going to be the turning point in your career,” the Baroda batter reflected on her partnership with Smriti. 

“We also met when I was in rehab, and I was a little nervous. But she said ‘you are a sincere kid, you are a good human -- just keep doing the hard work and your time will come.”

Inch by inch, battling tough injuries and form dips, Yastika put herself up on Lord’s honours board in a company of only herself. 

Kranti Gaud, an Indian revolution

There’s a scene from BCCI’s Instagram video on Kranti Gaud, where a bunch of fans stand right in front of the hotel for a sight of her. The visual isn’t too different from how the fans flock up in thousands at Shah Rukh Khan’s residence in Mumbai to catch a small glimpse of their superstar. 

After Jhulan Goswami’s retirement, Indian cricket yearned for an out-and-out pacer for the longest time. As fitting as it is here, in came Kranti (revolution in Hindi) for India – a pacer who wasn’t just bowling in-swingers and out-swingers but was consistently hitting the 100kmph mark, making her an exciting prospect. 

But now she’s much more than the prospect; she’s the first woman to have her name on the Lord’s honours board following her sizzling five-wicket haul against England. In just her second Test, Gaud had England batters on their toes, bowling those in-dippers, which got Tammy Beaumont in the first innings. 

Against Maia Bouchier, she showed a different side of her bowling, the ability to move the ball away, and to prise out batters. She repeated the same against Alice Capsey as the ball moved just enough to take out the off-stump. With just two wickets left in the innings, it seemed like Gaud’s dream of becoming the first women’s cricketer on Lord’s honours board was losing steam. 

However, the 22-year-old searched, searched and searched before bowling a perfect delivery to remove Lauren Bell and get herself a fifth wicket – enough to put herself on the Lord’s honours board. India’s revolution for red-ball greatness has truly begun.