New Delhi: Mumbai Indians’ star bowler Saika Ishaque is among the leading wicket-takers with 13 wickets in five games. The left-arm spinner made it to WPL 2023 by performing well at the domestic level and has been the find of the tournament so far.
In a video shared by MI, the 27-year-old bowler shared her journey of playing cricket and becoming a left-arm spinner. She also recalled meeting MI’s coach and India’s former pacer Jhulan Goswami when she was a kid.
Saika told that she used to play ‘gully cricket’ with boys but at that time, did not know that girls also played the game professionally. She added that her father’s friend spotted her and sent her to an academy where she met Goswami. Ishaque told that her first-ever cricket kit was also gifted to her by Jhulan Goswami. She said that when she met Jhulan Goswami for the first time, she could not even reach her knee height and her support means the world to her.
About playing her first WPL game, she said that she was nervous throughout the day, and even when Harmanpreet handed her the ball, her hands were trembling. Saika said that after bowling the first ball, she got her confidence back as she took it like just another game of cricket. She said that her captain Harmanpreet backs her when she is nervous and tells her to smile and just bowl.
She picked four wickets for just 11 runs in the first game and was the reason behind Gujarat Giants wrapping up for just 64 runs. Currently, she is ranked third, behind Sophie Ecclestone and Amelia Kerr among the top wicket-takers of the tournament.
She said that she used to bowl medium pace and even bought wicketkeeping gloves, but a senior named Zoya advised her to bowl left-arm spin.
“Jhulu di ne merko first time kit gift kiya tha, pehla kit merko unki taraf se hi mila tha” ?
Watch: The Saika Story! ??#OneFamily #MumbaiIndians #AaliRe #WPL2023 pic.twitter.com/9G5kx2pzgN
— Mumbai Indians (@mipaltan) March 23, 2023
The bowler revealed having an injury in 2018 and said she could not bowl for two years. She added that after recovery former national selector Mithu Mukherjee sent her to Shiv Sagar Singh sir who helped her with bowling.
On her domestic performance, she said that in a game, Bengal was almost lost to Punjab but she dismissed Harmanpreet Kaur and Taniya Bhatia consecutively and her team won the game. She believes this was the game that got her selected for the Women’s T20 Challenge.
