Richa Ghosh Was India's Standout Performer In 2023 But We Just Didn't Notice

Richa Ghosh [X.Com]

Richa Ghosh knows a thing clearly about her cricket and it’s that her job is perhaps pretty clear in what’s expected of her. And she’s expected, as is every single player in women’s cricket, to try and support the team to lift titles. 

There aren’t that many that India have won where it comes to prominent ICC titles. There is, for instance, not one ICC women’s World Cup trophy in the past several years of playing the sport and playing it with remarkable will and consistency that India has. 

All of that, one expects, will change and must change given India have got a fantastic team that on its day, can challenge the authority of even Australia and just about beat the best in the world. 

The standout performer of India

A fact that was proven very avidly by the Indians touring to Oz in 2020 for the then T20 Women’s World Cup, where prior to the big World Cup, India played a tri series that also involved Australia. 

And in one of the matches of that series, India won. India didn’t just win; it defeated the hosts of that year’s biggest ICC event on the women’s calendar: the T20 women’s World Cup, albeit in the curtain raising series that also featured England as well as the Aussies.  

From that point onwards, which quite frankly was no watershed moment for India women’s cricket, the fans and critics observed something that no article anywhere in the world of cricket journalism ever touches. 

Richa was just 16 years old back then when she was picked for the 2020 women’s T20 World Cup that was held in Oz. 

But here’s the kicker despite Ghosh not playing a game while having made it to the squad: thanks to fresh and rising faces like her, India’s batting, a conundrum on turning and arduous pitches such as those in England and Down Under, has found this newfound depth. 

For it is ultimately the factor that will come handy when India next faces an uphill task at beating a widely known force in the women’s game such as England, which actually is the very team it faces for a series of white ball encounters beginning (in the) next few hours. 

But here’s what’s also another standout.

Richa Ghosh from Bengal, who wasn’t even in the side in that miraculous game India won at Melbourne in 2020, has been playing international cricket ever since the beginning of 2020. 

And while not an awful lot has changed in India’s trophy cabinet, it must be noted what has in such time. 

Richa Ghosh’s ability to be flexible with her batting; she often bats up the order and many a times comes down the ranks, has given India the freedom to choose who to bat with and on a certain type of pitch. 

This year itself, Richa batted quite up the order having been deliberately asked to accelerate the order of scoring in the T20 women’s World Cup especially during difficult games. 

In so doing, the world of women’s cricket saw a new face that relishes smashing the white ball, whether over cover or towards mid on and with rich aplomb. 

One of the biggest developments for Indian cricket, they won’t let you forget and remind you constantly about at the very next opportunity, is that indian men’s cricket team played the finals of the ODI World Cup. 

A loss happened. But an indian team played the grand finals. 

Narratives that help the cash registers ringing will continue to run riot for times to come in the glory of mortals who today have become international bestsellers. 

Their names- Kohli and Rohit. 

But what must also be remembered and therefore, not forgotten so conveniently is that the men’s team wasn’t the only side that played a World Cup final this year. 

Another team did miles away in South Africa, a destination quite afar from the subcontinent’s comfort and that balmy feeling. 

Its name is the Indian women’s cricket team, which went down fighting, to the very opponent that punished the menfolk. 

The marvellous Richa Ghosh

On February 23, 2023, the Indian women’s team under the captaincy of Harmanpreet Kaur went down fighting team Australia commandeered by Meg Lanning. In a contest considered a game of epic proportions, team Australia had no equals, none whatsoever in what was a staggering display of athleticism and sheer will to win. 

But it was a marvellous lesson for Richa Ghosh, the powerful striker of the white ball whose 14 off 17 didn’t really change the game much. 

And yet, even this seemingly ordinary score proved to be a giant of a difference from the sheer failures that India’s popular top order copped up: for instance the much-loved Smriti Mandhana made 2 off 5 in the finals. 

Could the vice captain of the team have tried better and played with more awareness especially since keeping cool under pressure was but the need of the hour - we don’t know. We can’t say. Smriti is a legend of the game, they say and one’s not sure if offering critique on one of the cricketers India obsesses about is a wise idea. 

Upsetting devoted fans of a charismatic cricketer with a powerful fan army even as critique is backed with reason doesn’t seem to be a wise idea. 

But what’s true is that on the same Cape Town pitch where many struggled to put bat to ball and where India’s top three, believe it or not, perished for single-digit scores, Richa Ghosh tried to focus. 

She’s done that for a year and a half. 

Earlier this year, she guided her team to safety and eventually, a much wanted win against the so called archrivals Pakistan when the going got tough. 

One reckons, in an age of best selling narratives that drive TRP’s and give viewers what they often salivate after, which is nothing but the same faces they root for day in, day out, little is spared to appreciate the rigours of a Richa Ghosh or for that matter, a Radha Yadav or Pooja Vastrakar. 

Make no mistake. It’s not that Mandhana or Harmanpreet or the likes aren’t champions of the game; the sport will be poorer without them. 

That’s the truth. 

But maybe, just maybe, if half the amount of attention that already rests on these “big names” with “commercially bankable personas” were to grace a Richa Ghosh or Vastrakar or Jemimah’s, Indian cricket, will, at the very least, bat for some sort of fairness where hype doesn’t only belong to the chosen few, the crowd favourites, but also considers others who try to make the team win just as hard as the already popular. 

And speaking of trying, Ghosh did all a developing, still very young but endlessly passionate cricketer could do in the T20 World Cup. Remember a cricketer of the age of 20. 

On February 12, 2023, as we overcame Pakistan’s challenge in what was then the fourth game of the 23-match long tournament in South Africa, lest it is forgotten, the T20 World Cup, Ghosh made an unbeaten 31 off just 20 under pressure as the asking rate was going up. 

Gladly, the more experienced and always calm Jemimah Rodriguez was unbeaten at the other end with her 53* off just 38. But this winning stand that took India home was worth very little in the absence of Ghosh’s ghosting of pressure put by Pak bowlers. 

Truth be told, Richa Ghosh, whose popularity is rising also because of her agile keeping and readiness to throw herself at the balls, had a more fascinating World Cup than the flimsy cricket publications will ever let you believe. 

So how’s that? Just make time for the following. 

Richa Ghosh in WT20Is in 2023

What we remember as on date about women’s cricket in India in 2023 isn’t Richa Ghosh’s fantastic batting average in her maiden T20I CWC appearance.

But probably because the words, “Harmanpreet.. Smriti..” have been forced down us our throats so much, we likely remember the year for these two really successful cricketers’ achievements, when in reality, others too may have done their bit for the nation. 

And have they not? 

Maybe the fault doesn’t lie with the always affable and spirited Mandhana, a vice captain India needs in this critical post Mithali-era where rebuilding is happening at every possible level in the playing eleven. 

It’s the overzealous fan boys and the country’s inherent rabble rousing culture that needs to be addressed; one that salivates after stars and starry egoes, forgetting dumbly and absent mindedly that one or two big names don’t win you games, the rest of the team also plays a part. 

For now, Richa Ghosh is good news for the team. She’s confident. She’s got shots on all sides of the park and what’s more? 

The harmless girl with a touch of innocence on her face changes gears whilst batting without much ado. 

Overall stats in WT20Is

It’s about time we, the fans, changed our outlook or better yet, broadened it to accommodate others too who are doing the job for the country and getting talked about ever so little. 

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