Indian batter Jemimah Rodrigues has been in various situations in her career, from being in the starting lineup to being pulled from the Indian women's national cricket team during an international event.
“After the last Sri Lanka tour, my journey has not been very smooth,” Jemimah said. “There have been ups and downs and it was not easy.”
She added that last year was particularly hard for her professional career as the 21-year-old cricketer was benched during the ODI and the T201 series in England. In addition, she said she felt upset with herself in mental changes after she dropped out from the team.
Rodrigues was left out from the Indian team for the Women’s ODI World Cup in New Zealand, yet, somehow she managed to play against Sri Lanka in T20I on Thursday. It was her comeback to the team after five months.
"I am back in the Indian team after 4-5 months. I was very pumped up today and wanted to give my best," she said.
Rodrigues was in the lineup with Radha Yadav during the match at Rangiri Dambulla International Stadium in Sri Lanka.
Women in Blue’s Yadav bowled with Rodrigues's 36 runs making the team score a 34-run win over Sri Lanka. On the host side, Sri Lanka’s Kavisha Dilhari slammed unbeaten 46 runs and was the top scorer for the team while the bowlers restricted India to 138/6 in 20 overs.
For India, Yadav bagged two wickets while Pooja Vastrakar, Shafali Verma and Deepti Sharma scalped one wicket each respectively.
Rodrigues contributed to the team as a batter and statistically slammed more runs when four important batters were bowled out by Sri Lankan cricketers.
With this win, India has taken the lead in the three-match T20I series and Rodrigues was rewarded with player-of-the-match in her comeback.
In the post-match interview, the 21-years-old cricketer told the media that she talked to India men's cricket national team captain, Rohit Chand and Rishabh Pant. She discussed receiving help after she was left out of the women’s team last year.
It was the last month when Rodrigues talked to them and she said that she felt blessed about it. She was ensured by both Sharma and Pant not to look at herself in a negative way. They then talked to her to prepare herself for the upcoming things.
“They actually told that these moments define you and prepare you for something greater that's coming. If you look at it [in a] negative way it is not going to help. But these are the moments that define you as a cricketer. I was blessed to speak to them and some of our teammates," she added.
Moreover, Rodrigues shared her understanding of her career as a cricketer and the support from her family that made her game better. As a result, all the discussions she had positively affected her performance.
“The last few months have helped me understand even my game better. This is the cricketer's life - nobody's life is smooth and what I am learning is to get better every time," she said.
