An 18-year-old Shweta Sehrawat is the star in the making

Shweta has emerged as one of the consistent performers in the tournament. And it won't be surprising if this teenager soon gets the chance to make it to the team of Harmanpreet Kaur and Co. as well.

An 18-year-old Shweta Sehrawat is the star in the making

Shweta Sehrawat

Shweta Sehrawat, the 18-year-old girl from Delhi, has come out all guns blazing in the ongoing ICC Women Under-19 World Cup 2023. With three half-centuries, she is now the highest run-scorer in the tournament so far.

In the semi-final clash between India and New Zealand, Shweta scored an unbeaten 61 runs from 45 balls while chasing a paltry target of 108. It was her third half-century knock in this tournament. India won that match, courtesy of Shweta’s knock and Parshavi Chopra‘s three scalps and now, the women in blue will face Australia in the final on Sunday (January 29).

Ahead of the tournament, Shweta played several matches and performed impressively in them. But that didn’t bring her under the limelight. It was the unbeaten 92-run knock against South Africa that showed she could be the one to look out for in the tournament, despite the team’s having two international players- Shefali Verma and Richa Ghosh.

But here’s an interesting tale. She could have missed the U19 trials had not VVS Laxman persuaded her to attend them. Seven months ago, Shweta wrote a letter to National Cricket Academy (NCA) chief VVS Laxman that she could not attend the trials due to her Class XII board exams. But Laxman had heard about her batting, so he insisted she “at least attend a few days of the camp“.

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Shweta Sehrawat’s has been playing fearless cricket since her debut

Shweta Sehrawat
Shweta Sehrawat

She made her debut in the Women’s Twenty20 last year in April and slammed her maiden fifty (60 off 43) against Manipur in October. She top-scored in the Women’s Under-19 Challenger Trophy in November and also led the team to win the title.

In a quadrangular series featuring West Indies, Sri Lanka, West Indies, and two teams from India, she again led India A to victory. And with the bat, she scored 164 runs, the most in the tournament.

Before the U19 World Cup, she was named India’s captain in a five-match T20I series against New Zealand. Her team brilliantly whitewashed the Kiwis 5-0. She scored 180 runs in that series.

In December 2022, she was selected as Shefali Verma’s deputy for the U19 T20 World Cup. In India’s campaign opener against South Africa, she nearly missed her century by eight runs. She took 57 balls to score 92* runs, becoming India’s first U19 player to do so.

In the next match against UAE, she played another half-century knock, scoring an unbeaten 74 runs. And following her 31*, 21, and 13, she scored her third half-century in the all-important semifinal clash against New Zealand.

“I used to take my elder daughter (Swati) to Sonnet Cricket Club and Shweta would just accompany me. She would insist on playing with her sister, but I never gave it much attention because she was too young. A few months later, we shifted Swati to a cricket academy in Vasant Kunj. It was a boys’ academy and the coach asked one of them to bowl at Shweta with a tennis ball,” Shweta’s father Sanjay Sehrawat had said in an interview.

“I still remember her first shot, straight down the ground. For a seven-year-old playing fearlessly against the U-19 boys, I was shocked. Next day, I got her all the kits and her cricketing journey started,” he added.

Her father credits her fearless approach to her playing with boys. “There were only two girls in that academy. For almost four years, she played with the boys and that toughened her and the fear factor was gone.”

Shweta has emerged as one of the consistent performers in the tournament. And it won’t be surprising if this teenager soon gets the chance to make it to the team of Harmanpreet Kaur and Co. as well.

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