Pooja Vastrakar (born 25 September 1999) is an Indian

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

er who plays for the

national team A national sports team (commonly known as a national team or a national side) is a team that represents a nation, rather than a particular club or region, in an international sport. The term is most commonly associated with team sports, for exa ...

as an all-rounder. She is a right-arm

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-fast bowler and right-handed batter. She made her international debut for India in 2018, against

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

. In domestic cricket, she represents

Madhya Pradesh Madhya Pradesh (; ; ) is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal and the largest city is Indore, Indore. Other major cities includes Gwalior, Jabalpur, and Sagar, Madhya Pradesh, Sagar. Madhya Pradesh is the List of states and union te ...

Early life

Vastrakar initially started playing cricket with the boys near her neighborhood in

Shahdol Shahdol is a City in Shahdol district in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. It is the administrative headquarters of Shahdol district, The total geographical area of the district is . Geography Shahdol is Located on . It has an average eleva ...

. She later started going to the stadium and practiced net batting where the coach Ashutosh Shrivastava realized her talent and started her formal training. She started off as a batter and later on when she joined the Madhya Pradesh team, she started fast bowling alongside her batting. At the age of 15, she was a part of India Green Women Squad. In 2016, while Vastrakar was fielding during a senior women's domestic match, she twisted her knee. This led to her getting surgery done for her anterior cruciate ligament tear which put her National call-up in jeopardy. The Challenger Trophy in 2018 played a pivotal role in Vastrakar's selection for India's South Africa tour. Vastrakar's father is a retired employee of

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (commonly known as BSNL) () is an Indian Public Sector Undertakings in India, central public sector undertaking, under the ownership of Department of Telecommunications, which is part of the Ministry of Communicatio ...

(BSNL). Her mother died when she was ten years old. She has four sisters and two brothers and is the youngest of seven siblings.

International career

She made her

Women's One Day International cricket Women's One Day International (ODI) is the limited overs cricket, limited overs form of women's cricket. Matches are scheduled for 50 over (cricket), overs, equivalent to the One Day International, men's game. The first women's ODIs were played ...

(WODI) debut for India Women against South Africa Women on 10 February 2018. She made her

Women's Twenty20 International cricket Women's Twenty20 international (WT20I) is the shortest form of women's international cricket. A women's Twenty20 international is a 20 overs-per-side cricket match between two of the International Cricket Council (ICC) members. The very first ...

(WT20I) debut for India Women against South Africa Women on 13 February 2018. In October 2018, she was named in India's squad for the

2018 ICC Women's World Twenty20 The 2018 Women's World Twenty20 was the sixth edition of the Women's World Twenty20, hosted in the West Indies from 9 to 24 November 2018. It the second World Twenty20 hosted by the West Indies (after the 2010 edition), and the West Indies wer ...

tournament in the West Indies. However, she suffered an injury during a warm-up match, and was later ruled out of the tournament. In January 2020, she was named in India's squad for the

2020 ICC Women's T20 World Cup The 2020 Women's T20 World Cup was the seventh Women's T20 World Cup tournament. It was held in Australia between 21 February and 8 March 2020. The 2020 Women's T20 World Cup final, final took place at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Internati ...

in Australia. In May 2021, she was named in India's

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for their one-off match against the

England women's cricket team The England women's cricket team represents England and Wales in international women's cricket. Since 1998, they have been governed by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), having been previously governed by the Women's Cricket Associatio ...

. Vastrakar made her Test debut on 16 June 2021, for India against

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. In January 2022, she was named in India's team for the

2022 Women's Cricket World Cup The 2022 ICC Women's Cricket World Cup was the twelfth edition of the Women's Cricket World Cup, which was held in New Zealand in March and April 2022. It was originally scheduled for 6 February to 7 March 2021 but was postponed by one year due ...

in New Zealand. She scored 156 runs averaging 26.00, and took 10 wickets averaging 18.30 in the tournament. In July 2022, she was named in India's team for the cricket tournament at the

2022 Commonwealth Games The 2022 Commonwealth Games, officially known as the XXII Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Birmingham 2022, were an international multi-sport event for members of the Commonwealth of Nations that took place in Birmingham, England betw ...

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, England. She was named in the India squad for the

2024 ICC Women's T20 World Cup The 2024 Women's T20 World Cup was the ninth edition of the Women's T20 World Cup. Originally scheduled to be hosted in Bangladesh from 3 to 20 October 2024, it was later relocated to the United Arab Emirates for the same dates due to political ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Vastrakar, Pooja 1999 births Living people People from Shahdol Cricketers from Madhya Pradesh India women Test cricketers India women One Day International cricketers India women Twenty20 International cricketers Madhya Pradesh women cricketers Central Zone women cricketers IPL Supernovas cricketers Mumbai Indians (WPL) cricketers Brisbane Heat (WBBL) cricketers Indian expatriate cricketers in Australia Cricketers at the 2022 Commonwealth Games Commonwealth Games silver medallists for India Commonwealth Games silver medallists in cricket Medallists at the 2022 Commonwealth Games Asian Games gold medalists in cricket Cricketers at the 2022 Asian Games Asian Games gold medalists for India Medalists at the 2022 Asian Games