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Vaibhavi Raja selected in the Mumbai Women’s U23 team

On January 19, Vaibhavi Raja, who trains at Dombivli’s Cricket Explained Academy under the guidance of Hrishikesh Puranik, was selected in Mumbai Women’s U23 team that will play one day matches against Manipur, Karnataka, and Gujarat on January 26, 28, and 30, respectively at Kolkata. This is a part of the All India tournament organised by the BCCI.

 

While Vaibhavi has already left for Kolkata to represent Mumbai, Know Your Town got in touch with her coach, Hrishikesh Puranik, to know more her.

 

Hrishikesh says, “Vaibhavi came to my academy about three years back. Her parents, who had witnessed a couple of good knocks from one of her Mumbai U19 teammates at the Jolly Gymkhana during selection matches, enquired about that player’s coach. That is how they came to know about me.”

 

He adds, “When I first saw Vaibhavi, I knew that she had the talent but what was lacking was intent to put in the long hours of practice. The first thing that I told Vaibhavi and her parents was that if she wants to play cricket at the highest level, she will have to dedicate more time to cricket, which meant training for atleast five to six hours daily and play a couple of practice matches per week.”

 

It was not going to be easy for Vaibhavi, who lives in Ghatkopar, to make the switch. She had to fight two battles at the very start. First, she had to manage her travel in crowded local trains of Mumbai everyday for commuting from Ghatkopar to Dombivli and vice versa, and second, she had to allocate more hours for her cricket.

 

Hrishikesh knew these challenges and was proactive in helping Vaibhavi overcome them. He started working on her mindset. “Vaibhavi was very low on confidence when she came to my academy for the first time. She had heard a lot of negatives about her game. When you are young, it is not easy to swallow these bitter pills and Vaibhavi bore the brunt of all the negativities. At one point, she even thought of quitting the game,” explains Hrishikesh.

 

He adds, “We used to chat for long periods to sort out her mental state. I always told that if she scored runs consistently then there would be nobody to stop her from getting selected into the Mumbai team. Once her mindset was stable, we started with the training.”

 

Sharing one of the incidents of how Vaibhavi was able to fight the mental demons, Hrishikesh says, “We were playing a practice match against U14 boys. Some of the girls playing on the same ground started ridiculing Vaibhavi for playing against these young boys. When she walked out to bat, she carried those negative thoughts and fell cheaply. I understood what went wrong for her. So, I just gave a pep talk and sent her to bat again. She scored 82.”

 

Having played the sport himself at a professional level, Hrishikesh knows what goes through the mind of a player. He had a good understanding of what was happening with Vaibhavi. He recommended her books, articles, etc. to read and also made her watch inspiring interviews on YouTube. Doing everything was Hrishikesh had prescribed, there was a paradigm shift in Vaibhavi’s mindset and she started batting with a lot of freedom.

 

Though she missed out this year on getting selected in the Mumbai senior women’s team, she has made it to the U23 team, thanks to her performance at the club level matches. Vaibhavi captains Matunga Gymkhana and is fresh from a century that she hit against MIG Cricket Club on January 17 during the 2nd MCA Women’s Cricket League.

 

It is quite interesting how she broke into the Matunga Gymkhana team. Hrishikesh tells, “We were playing a practice match at Oval Maidan against a boys’ club team from Vikhroli. Vaibhavi was the only girl in our team. She played well in that match. A few days later, the coach of the Vikhroli team called me asking about Vaibhavi and whether she would be interested in representing Matunga Gymkhana. I agreed but made a request that she should be allowed to bat at the top of the order. The only reason behind this request was, I believe most batters are recognised for their performances if they bat at the top.”

 

Hrishikesh concludes, “All her hard work has paid off. After training at BKC from morning to afternoon, she used to come to Dombivli for practice. We used to train till evening. She used to be exhausted by the end of session. But that’s the amount of work one needs to put in to achieve great heights.”

 

He further exclaims, “Vaibhavi has achieved her first goal. It is a matter of pride for me too having lived this journey together with her.”