Driven by ‘grah’ and Google, Vaishnavi’s genius is a gift waiting to be unwrapped this Sri Lanka series

Vaishnavi Sharma is a product of two Gs— bean (planet) and Google. The left-arm spinner who made her debut for India in the first T20I against Sri Lanka in Visakhapatnam owes her career to her astrologist father, Dr. Narendra Sharma.

“When Vaishnavi was born, we drew out her kundali (horoscope) and found that she has two avenues of success—medicine and sport. At the time, I thought that if she became a doctor, the city would know her, but if she succeeded in a sport, the world would,” he told Sports stars.

Narendra played gully cricket himself but had no one to support his ambitions, so he moved mountains for his son and daughter. Vaishnavi picked up a bat and ball at age four and never looked back.

‘Make Vaishnavi play cricket’

“During her summer holidays, we would take her to camps for about 15-20 days. After that, we used to help her and her brother, Ashendra, train at home. Their mother, Asha, and I would both give them throwdowns. At one point, my son turned to me and said, ‘Papa, I can’t wake up so early in the morning. Let me be. I will study well. You make Vaishnavi play cricket.’”

Narendra personally oversaw his daughter’s evolution as an all-rounder until 2021. The family trained at Tansen Cricket Academy, facilities of the Madhya Pradesh Cricket Association, and the Gwalior District Cricket Association. Vaishnavi made the U-16 Madhya Pradesh team at the age of 11, and the atmosphere there fuelled her interest further.

“Whenever we encountered a difficulty in her training, we would quickly Google how to tackle it and give her routines accordingly.”

On the side of all this, Narendra insulated his daughter from naysayers.

“There was a lot of opposition to the decision to put her into cricket. I had a lot of relatives question my decision to enrol her in sports and whether it was the right thing to do. For me, boy or girl didn’t matter. I wanted to nurture her talent.”

That demanded quite a few sacrifices.

“I work on a contract basis with the university, and there were times when I had to quit for a bit and stay at home so I could work on Vaishnavi. I have a PhD in Astrology and am the only one with that qualification in Gwalior (sic). But I needed to be my daughter’s shadow, so that took precedence over everything else. At one point, to finance what we needed to do, I got a bond put on the house I constructed for about ₹25 lakh. That helped me handle my kids’ expenses. COVID-19 brought more problems, and I had to sell the house. I, to date, live in a rented place with my family.”

The WPL snub

The focus on the big picture kept the family grounded as they waited for Vaishnavi’s big break. No takers in the Women’s Premier League auction dented her confidence a bit, but Narendra was unfazed.

“Anytime she faced a hurdle, I would only remind her that better things are in the offing. Recently, she was a little dejected when she didn’t land a WPL contract. It hit her confidence, but I reassured her that something even bigger was written in her destiny. A few days later, the India call-up arrived.”

Despite going wicketless, she was the most economical, conceding just 16 runs in four overs. She would have had a dismissal marked against her name as well, if not for Sree Charani’s ordinary effort at short fine leg to hand a reprieve to Hasini Perera.

“There was no disappointment (when the catch was dropped). I am just very happy that I was able to execute my plan, and there are four more matches to go,” she said after India’s eight-wicket win.

Skipper Harmanpreet Kaur likes to have the cushion of wicket-taking spinners, as evidenced by her use of and reliance on Deepti Sharma. She welcomed Vaishnavi into the squad with similar expectations.

“We all know you’ve done wonders in the Under-19 World Cup,” Harmanpreet said as she put her arm around the youngster during her cap presentation, referring to Vaishnavi finishing as the tournament’s top wicket-taker with 17 scalps at an average of 4.35

“Even this domestic season was outstanding for you (21 wickets in the Senior Women’s T20 Trophy and 12 scalps from five matches, the most, in the Senior Women’s Inter-Zonal T20). We are 100 percent sure that you’ll bring the same wicket-taking approach to your international cricket also,” she added.

Vaishnavi looked more nervous waiting to do her maiden press conference in India colours than she did with the ball in hand. The words of her parents rang in her mind: “Just do well, beta (child). Show the world what you are capable of doing.”

A few days before the game, when the team was in the middle of their photoshoot with the new T20 jerseys, Vaishnavi called her parents with her palm covering the phone camera so she could surprise them. Big smiles adorned their faces, but the pair could barely manage to string words together.

“No words, it was just joy. I teared up instantly,” Narendra said, as he broke away into tears again. “My wife and I cried. We saw these dreams on behalf of Vaishnavi and made her work on them, and she has gone on that path and done so well. All I hope is that the only way forward is up. I only tell her to have faith in her talent and hard work; God will do the rest.”

Vaishnavi too entrusts the big troubles to cosmic powers. Between games, the youngster—who turned 20 a few days ago—spent some time with the squad at the famous Varaha Lakshmi Narasimha temple in Simhachalam, Visakhapatnam. She focuses on the thing she does best—playing cricket and playing well.

“Whatever happens, it will be good. Let’s leave it to God,” she would remark at the presser.

With inputs from Anirudh Velamuri