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WPL: Big buy Vrinda Dinesh wants to open with Alyssa Healy
UP Warriorz’s INR 1.3 crore auction acquisition can now gift her parents “the car they always dreamt of”
For a decade and a half, Indian Premier League has unfailingly pitchforked domestic talent from modest playgrounds and competitions into international limelight, offering them a huge payday at the annual auction and often a pathway to higher achievements.
The Women’s Premier League has just wrapped up only its second auction on Saturday, and going by how young domestic talent Vrinda Dinesh and Kashvee Gautam hogged the headlines with franchises splurging money after bidding battles, exciting times are ahead.
Karnataka’s Vrinda, 22, chose to approach auction day like any other. The Karnataka U-23 captain didn’t want to miss the team’s training session at Raipur. She was bowling in the nets when one teammate whispered “Vrinda for 1.3” to another. Vrinda overheard, took a deep breath, and bear hugs followed.
“The first person I called was my mom,” Vrinda said in a virtual interaction a day after being bought by UP Warriorz for ₹1.3 crore. “I didn’t video call her because I knew there would be tears. I heard a faint voice and knew they (family) were overwhelmed and very happy for me. I just want to make them proud.”
Vrinda “still doesn’t want the feeling to sink in”. With the state tournament on, the talented batter also does not want to think too much. She will probably have to battle her emotions through the matches.
Sink in it ultimately will. For Warriorz, she may get a chance to walk out to bat with multiple World Cup winner Alyssa Healy. Hailing from Bengaluru, Vrinda would have liked a Royal Challengers Bangalore contract. She has grown up aspiring to bat like Virat Kohli and Meg Lanning. Healy is her new favourite, Warriorz her new home. That’s the way the dice rolls in franchise cricket.
On Saturday, Healy spoke about starting a new legacy as Australia captain. It was around the same time that Vrinda’s life-changing moments were unfolding the Mumbai WPL auction room as paddles were furiously being held up, first involving RCB and then Warriorz and Gujarat Giants.
Vrinda had been called to attend trials by all the five teams thanks to her key role in Karnataka’s run to the final of the women’s one-day competition. Her 477 runs in 11 innings came at an average of 47.70. In T20 cricket, she is one of the cleanest top order strikers among the younger crop.
It wasn’t always like that. “I was more of a Test player,” she said. “When I met coach Kiran Uppoor, he worked with me on what to eat, how to train, trying to do the small things well. On staying motivated for training sessions every morning. His team did not shy away from throwing 100 balls at me.”
After two matches for her senior state side in 2018, Vrinda kept a count of how many matches she missed – 22. “When I came back, I scored two back-to-back hundreds. Those two years, I worked extremely hard.”
She was well supported by Karnataka captain Veda Krishnamurthy who told her that she would get a full run of matches. In WPL, she will be up against Krishnamurthy (GG) and her long-time academy teammate Shreyanka Patil (RCB). “Now that she’s my opponent, I would like to score a few runs off her,” she said.
Vrinda plays down talk of prize-tag pressure, speaking instead of her desire to win the World Cup one day. To get that far, Vrinda knows she must bridge the gap between domestic and international cricket. On days, with certain match-ups, WPL can be a notch under international cricket. On other days, it can be as challenging as cricket could be.
The first WPL season gave Indian cricket players who had made the step up from domestic level. There were also others who were discovered, but they weren’t quite there. With her experience with India A, Vrinda knows how much work she needs to put in to turn auction room buzz into success on the field.
For now, with the auction money, she wants to gift her parents “the car they always dreamt of”.
