Shikha Pandey

Flight Lieutenant Shikha Subas Pandey (born 12 May 1989) is an Indian cricketer[1] and officer in the Indian Air Force (IAF).[2][3] She plays for the national cricket team as a right-arm medium pacer and middle-order batter, and is an IAF air traffic control officer.[2][3]

Shikha Pandey
Pandey bowling for India during the 2020 ICC Women's T20 World Cup
Personal information
Full nameShikha Subas Pandey
Born (1989-05-12) 12 May 1989
Karimnagar, India
BattingRight-handed
BowlingRight-arm medium
RoleAll-rounder
International information
National side
Test debut (cap 78)13 August 2014 v England
Last Test16 November 2014 v South Africa
ODI debut (cap 112)21 August 2014 v England
Last ODI6 November 2019 v West Indies
T20I debut (cap 48)9 March 2014 v Bangladesh
Last T20I8 March 2020 v Australia
Career statistics
Competition WTest WODI WT20I
Matches 2 52 46
Runs scored 37 507 187
Batting average 37.00 21.12 13.35
100s/50s 0/0 0/2 0/0
Top score 22* 59 26*
Balls bowled 159 2,340 623
Wickets 4 73 29
Bowling average 20.00 21.06 26.24
5 wickets in innings 0 0 0
10 wickets in match 0 0 0
Best bowling 2/33 4/18 3/16
Catches/stumpings 0/– 9/- 15/-
Source: Cricinfo, 6 May 2020

Pandey made her international Twenty20 (T20) debut on 9 March 2014 against Bangladesh at Cox's Bazar cricket stadium in Bangladesh.[4][5] In August of the same year, she made her One Day International cricket (ODI) and Test cricket debuts against England at Wormsley and Scarborough, respectively.

Early life

Pandey did her schooling under the Central Board of Secondary Education, India. At the age of 15, she became the first player affiliated with state board to represent India.[6] Within months of this affiliation and getting introduced into the formal set-up, Surekha Bhandare, former Mumbai player and selector, saw her playing and believed that Pandey had all the markings of a future India player. "The raw talent in her was hard to go unnotice," Bhandare was quoted stating.[6] In the class-ten board (secondary school) exams, she won the state-wide third rank. It was then that she decided to focus more on studies and cricket took a back seat for the next three years. It was not before her second year as an undergraduate in Electronics and Electrical Engineering that she begun pursuing the sport with serious intent.[6]

Academics has always been important to Pandey and had to juggle cricket and college, where she would spend her morning doing gym sessions and academic work, and her afternoons would include a 12km journey to Mapusa so she could train under Nitin Vernekar, former Goa cricketer and Sports Authority of Goa coach.[6] This phase was very crucial to her growth as a cricketer as being the only girl at the boy's facility facing U-16 and U-19 boys honed her reaction time against pace bowling.[6]

However, she did not let her focus on game affect her academic performance. She particularly credits Ujwala Phadte, her lecturer in Applied Mathematics for helping her through out this phase and making sure her grades were not inversely proportional to her on-field performance.[6]

After completing her engineering degree from Goa College of Engineering in 2010, three multinational companies offered her opportunities, but she declined all these placement offers and decided to take a year off and focus on her cricketing career completely.[6] In July 2011, she joined Indian Air Force, and in June 2012 was commissioned as an air traffic controller.[7][8]

Cricket career

At the age of 15, Pandey was selected to play for Goa in 2004. Later at the age of 17 for the 2007–08 domestic season, she was selected to play for Goa's Women Senior State Side.[9] In the inter-state two-day tournament, Rani Jhansi Trophy, she picked up a four-wicket haul. This was also her Goa senior women's debut. Thirushi Kamini, then already an Indian international, was her first wicket which was a caught-and-bowled. What fast-tracked her selection into the zonal squad the same season was her scoring three half-centuries for the Goa Under-19 side.[6]

In her year off from her engineering course and Pandey played in Board President's XI against the visiting England and West Indies teams in 2010 and January 2011 respectively and also took her first "international wicket, albeit unofficial," Charlotte Edwards in the 2010 tour game. She continued to play for Goa and after 2013–14 season of Inter-State T20 tournament (Plate group) she was selected for India's tour of Bangladesh consisting 3 friendly matches with Bangladesh and 2014 ICC Women's World Twenty20.[10] After Dilip Sardesai, she is the first player from Goa to play for any Indian national team. She is also the first Goa Cricket Association affiliated cricketer to play international level cricket for India.[5][7][11] She is the first Goa-born player to play ODIs and international T20s and 2nd player to play Test cricket, after Saredesai,[12] thus becoming first cricketer to have played both state level cricket for Goa and international level cricket for India.[12] After the T20 World Cup, she played one-off Test match and 2 ODI matches against England.[13][14] She was instrumental in India's win against South Africa on 26 November 2014. She took 3 wickets and scored 59 runs.[15]

Pandey was part of the Indian team to reach the final of the 2017 Women's Cricket World Cup where the team lost to England by nine runs.[16][17][18] In January 2020, she was named in India's squad for the 2020 ICC Women's T20 World Cup in Australia.[19]

The Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal B.S. Dhanoa felicitating Flt. Lt. Shikha Pandey, a member of Indian Women's Cricket team in the ICC Women's World Cup, in New Delhi on 1 August 2017

References
  1. "Shikha Pandey". ESPN Cricinfo. Retrieved 5 July 2017.
  2. Junaid, Abdul (December 2016). "Fl Lt Shikha Pandey: The Unsung Officer of Indian Women Cricket Team". SSBCrack. Retrieved 20 July 2020.
  3. Gaur, Akshat (26 February 2020). "From being an Air Force officer to Indian's frontline bowler, Shikha Pandey reveals her journey". The Cricket Times. Retrieved 20 July 2020.
  4. "India recall Latika Kumari, Sravanthi Naidu for Women's WT20". ESPN Cricinfo. 21 February 2014. Retrieved 27 November 2014.
  5. "गोव्याची शिखा पांडे भारतीय क्रिकेट संघात" (in Marathi). Tarun Bharat. 21 February 2014. Retrieved 27 November 2014.
  6. "Hard-working Shikha Pandey lives her dream". ESPNcricinfo. 20 August 2017. Retrieved 15 December 2018.
  7. "Shikha, and engineering cricket dreams". International Cricket Council. Retrieved 27 November 2014.
  8. "Shikha Pandey LT interview October 2017 Lucknow Show". LT Media. Retrieved 21 December 2017.
  9. "Panday Selected For Goa State". ICC Cricket. 16 March 2010. Retrieved 4 April 2015.
  10. "Goa's Shikha Pandey makes India cut". The Times of India. The Times Group. 22 February 2014. Retrieved 27 November 2014.
  11. "शिखा बनली गोव्याची पहिली महिला कसोटीपटू" (in Marathi). eskal.com. 14 August 2014. Retrieved 12 December 2014.
  12. "Shikha close to ending Goa's 53-year drought". The Times of India. The Times Group. 22 February 2014. Retrieved 28 November 2014.
  13. "All round record – Shikha Pandey ODI". ESPN Cricinfo. Retrieved 28 November 2014.
  14. "All round record- Shikha Pandey Test cricket". ESPN Cricinfo. Retrieved 28 November 2014.
  15. "Shikha Pandey helps India level series against South Africa". Hindustan Times. HT Media. 27 November 2014. Retrieved 28 November 2014.
  16. Live commentary: Final, ICC Women's World Cup at London, Jul 23, ESPNcricinfo, 23 July 2017.
  17. World Cup Final, BBC Sport, 23 July 2017.
  18. England v India: Women's World Cup final – live!, The Guardian, 23 July 2017.
  19. "Kaur, Mandhana, Verma part of full strength India squad for T20 World Cup". ESPN Cricinfo. Retrieved 12 January 2020.

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