There’s something about Pooja Vastrakar, Test cricket and Australia. When India went up against Meg Lanning’s Aussies in a Pink Ball Test in Carrara back in 2021, Pooja returned miserly match figures of four for 62 from 26.4 overs which included the prized wickets of Meg Lanning, Tahlia McGrath and Beth Mooney.
More than two years later, against the same opponent but this time at the legendary Wankhede Stadium, the Pooja Vastrakar show was on yet again. The 24-year-old took out Mooney, Ellyse Perry, Annabel Sutherland and Ashleigh Gardner, giving away just 53 runs in 16 overs. Her seam mastery helped India bundle out a potent Australian batting lineup for an ordinary 219 within the first day of play.
The performance comes days after a hostile morning spell wrapped up a meek English batting lineup handing India a mammoth 347-run win.
“The ball she got Pez (Perry) off was a peach of a delivery,” conceded McGrath, the Australian vice-captain. One can’t blame her for her admiration. After seeing Pooja struggle with injuries periodically over the past few years, to see her at her fittest and also thriving will warm anyone’s heart.
Pooja Vastrakar with her childhood coach Ashutosh Srivastava | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Humble beginnings
For Ashutosh Srivastava, Pooja’s childhood coach, she is still the 12-year-old he mistook for a boy, thumping the ball with power all those years ago in Shahdol, a small city in east Madhya Pradesh.
“We belong to a tribal area where people only watched or listened to cricket on the TV or radio. So to see someone from here doing what she does is incredible,” Srivastava tells Sportstar.
Pooja’s tryst with cricket started with the bat. Ironically, it was an injury that introduced her to bowling.
“She initially came in with an interest in batting and she got selected for the Madhya Pradesh camp aged just 12. During that camp, she injured her hand. There was a coach there who said, “Pooja, you’re in the camp. Girls don’t come in here too frequently. Why don’t you try and bowl?” She gave it a try and enjoyed it. For me, it was an opportunity to mould an all-rounder which is an advantage in girls’ cricket,” he explains.
Srivastava’s academy in Shahdol is Pooja’s safe haven. It’s where she has headed to regain rhythm after injuries and to prepare for potential challenges on the cricket field. This back-to-back red ball opportunity against England and then Australia was no different.
“Pooja had a target to bowl in the line of the stumps, work on how to cut the ball into the batter and how to maximise advantages of the wobble seam. She would bowl for two odd hours at a time to work on each of these elements. During the rains when matches weren’t happening, we set up a matting wicket. U-19 and senior boys would come to train and she would bowl to them. Before the Test against England, she used to bowl to a single wicket on the main pitch,” the coach recollects.
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Mind and body in sync
From knee trouble and an anterior cruciate ligament tear to a COVID-19 diagnosis, many physical problems have come in between Pooja and the sport her heart beats for.
“As a coach, I would wonder about what will happen now. I was worried but she never was. Each time she picked up a niggle, she recovered and got back,” Srivastava remembers.
As a bowler with nifty pace, Pooja sometimes struggled for control, a potential reason why the Indian management rarely looked her way for new ball duties.
“I felt that she was so quick that just the momentum of the delivery would send it for runs. The runs conceded becomes the parameter everyone sees and discusses,” he said.
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This is where Troy Cooley, longtime National Cricket Academy (NCA) staffer and India’s current bowling coach, has made a difference. For Pooja, and perhaps for the entire Indian bowling contingent, Cooley doubles up a security blanket, shielding them from negatives and egging on the positives.
Troy Cooley with Indian pacers Renuka and Pooja | Photo Credit: Emmanual Yogini/ The Hindu
“His presence in the team has been so helpful. He is very positive. If we bowl badly, he doesn’t address. He focuses on the good things we’ve done in a session,” she said after day one of the one-off Test against Australia.
Pooja is also surrounded by people who are helping her widen her repertoire and introducing variations to make her a more unpredictable element in the flow of a game.
“Naturally, I stick to outswingers. But in the video analysis we did for England and Australia, we saw that both teams usually find the going hard against the ball that comes in. So the plan was to use the wobble seam to bring the ball in because the ball would cut well and trouble the batters more,” she added.
Two marquee batters were used as specimens to elucidate this point in two weeks. Natalie Sciver-Brunt couldn’t get to a straight ball angling in from Pooja properly and found her stumps uprooted. Perry was dismissed for her lowest Test score - a measly four from two balls - courtesy a length ball from Pooja which jacked in, castling the seasoned pro.
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Helping hand
An element that is evidently working for this Indian side is the sense of camaraderie and the value of helping one’s partner, be it with bat or ball.
“Pooja has learnt a lot from Jhulan, be it the details of her bowling technique or just Jhulan’s discipline. She is regularly in touch with Jhulan who keeps passing on notes on her bowling from time to time,” coach Srivastava says. | Photo Credit: Getty Images
Pooja understands that better than most, having been moulded to be Jhulan Goswami’s little helper before stepping up to partner Renuka Singh. At Wankhede, she was the one being helped for a change, by a stoic Sneh Rana.
“Before lunch, we had conceded more runs than we wanted to. So when we resumed after the break, the plan was to cut the boundaries we allowed and bowl as partners. If one concedes, then the bowler at the other end had to contain. Since Sneh was containing runs, I was able to free myself and attack. If she was taken for runs, I would have switched to a more defensive approach,” Pooja explained.
A team player
There has been much discussion about Pooja’s position in the lineup, both with the bat and ball. Against England, one saw India choosing to alternate Renuka’s pace with spin from Sneh. Pooja marked her run-up much later. Against Australia, on a pitch which had generous patches of grass at the ends, Pooja was given an earlier go, working with the new ball for a change.
The Indian huddle before day one of the Test against Australia at the Wankede Stadium | Photo Credit: Sportzpics for BCCI
“Pooja was someone we specifically spoke about as a batting unit. Her length is perfect for Tests. She runs in time and again and puts pressure on the batters. For us it was about capitalising when she missed and to put those balls away. We also tried to use the left right combination as much as possible to throw off her length a bit. We will draw from her performance today,” McGrath said.
About 1,218 km away in Shahdol, a very happy Srivastava is happy to see his ward’s efforts bringing her consistent rewards. He does have a wish though.
“If you ask me, I think she should bat higher up the order. But those taking the calls know what the team needs best,” he concludes.
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