The return of women's Test cricket on home soil for India after a long gap of nine years has witnessed a 24-year-old create a new record for the Indian women's cricket team. Emerging batting sensation Shubha Satheesh has become India's second-fastest women's player to score a half-century in Test cricket behind Sangita Dabir.
Playing in her debut Test and first-ever game for India, Satheesh came to bat in the sixth over of India's innings after the fall of Smriti Mandhana's wicket. She scored 69 runs off 76 balls and was involved in a 115-run stand for the third wicket with another debutant Jemimah Rodrigues.
Her partnership with Jemimah got India out of a precarious situation as they were once reeling at 2/47 in 8.4 overs. The southpaw's knock came at an impressive strike rate of 90.78 and saw her hit as many as 11 fours.
Who is Shubha Satheesh?
Shubha belongs to Karnataka and plays primarily as a batter but is also capable of bowling some handy medium pace. She was Karnataka's second-leading run-getter at the Women's Senior One Day Trophy 2021/22 season with 263 runs in seven games at an average of 43.83.
The southpaw scored accumulated 60 runs in three games during the recently held Senior Women's One Day Challenger Trophy while playing for India B.
She also caught everyone's attention recently when the Smriti Mandhana-led Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) roped her in for INR 10 lakhs at the Women's Premier League (WPL) auction 2024 in Mumbai. RCB had finished the 2023 season of the WPL at the fourth position with two wins in eight games and hence the fans would hope that Satheesh's inclusion brings a difference in the next season.
India's playing XI:
Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Shubha Satheesh, Jemimah Rodrigues, Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Deepti Sharma, Yastika Bhatia (wk), Sneh Rana, Pooja Vastrakar, Renuka Thakur Singh, Rajeshwari Gayakwad
