Who’s the one crown jewel of Uttarakhand in the Indian cricket team? Who’s the only Indian woman to feature in both the ICC ODI and T20 teams in the last year? The 32-year-old lady in jersey number eight can turn a losing match to India’s favour with her slow left-arm orthodox charisma. At 32, shows no sign of slowing down her chase to greatness, yet she somehow manages to stay unrecognized by most.
Ekta Bisht, the 5’4” spin sensation of India initially started off as a pacer in her plastic-ball hitting childhood, but it was Liyakat Ali, the Dronacharya, who advised the switch and gave her lessons afterwards. The girl from Khajanchi Bazar, Almora, crafted her bat herself from forest wood, but didn’t even know about the women’s national team before the age of 14! However, the small-town life was not very encouraging to her passion for the game, until her family decided to take a stand.
Ekta’s father, Kundan Singh Bisht was a retired army-man with a meager 1500 Rs. pension to sustain the family. To support her daughter through the struggle, he made the choice of opening a tea stall, while the girl was braving the climatic and infrastructural disadvantages with the sheer brilliance of her talented skill set.
Her international debut was in 2011, in a T20 against Australia on July 2. She got in the ODI squad in the same year. Within a year, she was playing the T20 World Cup, and comfortably took a hat-trick against Sri Lanka in it. The only test she ever played was in 2014, Wormsley, where she took 3 for 44.
Vineet Bisht, the brother who supported Ekta from breaking windows to attending camps, calls her more of a friend to him. He genially compares young Ekta’s look to the “Dangal” wrestler girls. Would you be anything other than a cricketer? Her rapid-fire answer comes, “a footballer, maybe!”
Ekta’s fearless fight shone through in Derby in the 2017 World Cup, on July 2- the 6th anniversary of her getting the cap. The 169-9 from India was enough for Pakistan to clinch their first victory against India. Early dismissal of stalwarts like Mithali Raj, Smriti Mandhana and Harmanpreet Kaur put India in the losing position. But somewhere between the match, Ekta Bisht exploded with her stellar performance.
A 10-2-18-5 that would be forever inked in India’s Women Cricket History. After grounding Pakistan in 74 all-out in 38.1 overs, it is no wonder that along with the Pak skipper, Raj also remarked post-match, “her spell was so crucial. Her first spell got the team back into the game".
Former captain and CoA member Diana Edulji was evidently beaming, “Ekta loves bowling against Pakistan… She is a wicket-taking bowler, not a defensive bowler, who loves trying different angles and variety". In her opinion, "She is a very intelligent bowler and India are lucky to have her!”
In addition to that, she’s that kind of a player who would fight with everything inside the field. It doesn’t matter if the ball hit her eyebrow and made her blinded by her own blood, she would definitely not miss the catch. She leaps out to take an impossible catch, paying zero attention to herself, even if she misses the rest of the match for her bleeding bowling palm. Sachin Tendulkar would applaud her awareness of the field, taking crucial wickets from anywhere on the go.
Yet her only want from the authorities would be a humble appeal for more matches. Even on the last ODI series with England, she holds the position of the only bowler to not have given an extra run!
Ekta Bisht in Numbers
Bisht's journey touched many peak-points. And now, here's a quick numeric glimpse at her career.
Ekta is a role model for all the girls in and out the field, for the parents who shy away from sending their daughters to the game. Tara Bisht, the proud mother recollects what people said, “ladkiyon ke cricket team ko koi nahi poochta, kya isse khelate rehte ho humesha;ladkiyon ke match koi nahi dekhta, tum ladki ko bewajah khela rahe ho". She adds, “But we had confidence in our daughter and we never stopped her from playing. And today, she has made all of us so proud.”
From practicing in the small multipurpose stadium in Almora to playing the honorable WWC Final in Lord’s, it’s been a worthy journey of the undaunted spirit that is Ekta Bisht, and she promises to continue the wonder for her country.
*The statistics are after the end of the recently concluded India vs England series (12/04/2018).
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Ekta Bisht during a match in ICC Women's World Cup 2017. © IE Online Media Services Pvt Ltd/womenscriczone-channel/media/post_attachments/oW8vRAIeHKAxf6YCzGdw.jpg)
Ekta Bisht during the match against Sri Lanka. ©ICC/womenscriczone-channel/media/post_attachments/io627V98LEik0ltRBFZS.jpg "publive-image")
Ekta Bisht after taking 5-wicket-haul against Pakistan in ICC Women's World Cup 2017. ©Reuters.