Purnima Rau (; born 30 January 1967) is an Indian former

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 and current cricket coach. She played as an

all-rounder An all-rounder is a cricketer who regularly performs well at both batting and bowling. Although all bowlers must bat and quite a handful of batsmen do bowl occasionally, most players are skilled in only one of the two disciplines and are cons ...

, batting right-handed and

bowling Bowling is a Throwing sports#Target sports, target sport and recreational activity in which a player rolls a bowling ball, ball toward Bowling pin, pins (in pin bowling) or another target (in target bowling). Most references to ''bowling'' are ...

right-arm

off break Off spin is a type of spin bowling in cricket. A bowler who uses this technique is called an off spinner. Off spinners bowl with their right-arm and a finger spin action. Their normal delivery is called an off break, which spins from left to ...

. She appeared in five Test matches and 33 One Day Internationals for

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

between 1993 and 2000. She played domestic cricket for

Andhra Andhra Pradesh (ISO: , , AP) is a state on the east coast of southern India. It is the seventh-largest state and the tenth-most populous in the country. Telugu is the most widely spoken language in the state, as well as its official lang ...

Railways Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of land transport, next to roa ...

and Air India.

Playing career

Rau made her international debut for India against West Indies in an ODI at Nottingham on 20 July 1993. Her Test debut came against New Zealand at Nelson on 7 February 1995. Rau was described as one of the first Indian women cricketers to attempt to take advantage of the field restrictions in place during the first 15 overs of a limited overs game. She captained India in 3 Test matches and 8 ODI matches, all in 1995. In 1996 skipper Rau helped the touring Andhra Pradesh women's cricket team register a 114-run victory over Samudra Ladies CC. She captained Air India in the 1999/00 season.

Coaching career

Rau was head coach of

between 2014 and 2017. Currently, she is a coach associated with development of youth and women's cricketers in

Hyderabad Hyderabad is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part of Southern India. With an average altitude of , much ...

References

External links

* * 1967 births Living people Sportspeople from Secunderabad Indian women cricketers India women Test cricketers India women One Day International cricketers Indian women cricket captains Andhra women cricketers Railways women cricketers Air India women cricketers Indian cricket coaches Coaches of the India women's national cricket team {{India-cricket-bio-1960s-stub