Arundhati Reddy , India’s fast bowler, was not expecting that she will not be part of white-ball squads for the home series against West Indies and Ireland, after giving best performance and taking four-wicket haul in the recent ODI.
But she is not discouraged, she said that she is focusing on her abilities and skills to become the best player she wants to be. Also she has learned to overcome the fear of failure, and she expresses her passion for cricket when she’s into the game.
Reddy and Shafali Verma both are not included in India’s limited overs squads against West Indies and Ireland series. Reddy made her debut in June last year while playing against South Africa, she played 5 matches, the latest of which was against Australia in Perth, where she took 4 wickets by giving just 26 runs.
“I am not really sure what exactly happened [after the Australia tour],” Reddy said on the side-lines of the Senior Women’s One Day Challenger Trophy final in Chennai, where she was representing team A, and her team lost to Team C. “But then again these things are not in my hands. At the end of the day, my cricket is in my hands, and if I just keep doing my job, as and when the opportunity comes, I will do well for India.”
“For me, all that matters is which team I am playing for and if I am doing well for them. And every time I take the field I want to win games for whichever team I play. And that has always been the way I play my cricket.”
Shafali, who was leading her team in the Challenger Trophy, got the title of highest run-maker with 414 runs in five matches at an average of 82.80, whereas Reddy got seven wickets in five matches at average of 24.14.
“This (Challenger Trophy) was a good challenge personally for me,” she said. “Didn’t start off that well but again I think I like pressure. Every time I am put under pressure I seem to do well. So again probably a win would have been great. But it was a great final for us.”
Arundhati Reddy was also overlooked for the T20 series against West Indies in December. She made her T20I debut in 2018 and was dropped in 2021 but during 2024 she made an impressive comeback to the side by giving best performance in WPL. Last year, she appeared in seven T20Is and took ten wickets. This includes the T20 World Cup in UAE, where she got the title of India’s joint-highest wicket-taker with seven wickets in four matches.
Reddy always wanted to avail every opportunity for her better cricketing future.
“I’ve been playing domestic since the time I was 12 years old,” she said. “But it’s just the past one or two years, I have felt the best that I have ever played. Again a lot of things have changed in the past two years.”
