Pratika Rawal made history as India Women’s 150th ODI cricketer when she took the field for the first ODI against the West Indies on Sunday, December 22, at the Kotambi Stadium in Vadodara. The 24-year-old opened the batting alongside Smriti Mandhana, who had recently been named Player of the Series in India’s 2–1 series victory over the West Indies.
Before the series opener, it was Smriti who presented Rawal with her maiden ODI cap. Rawal, a psychology student, began playing cricket at the age of 10.
Her breakthrough came in the 2021 Senior Women’s One-Day Trophy, where she scored 247 runs from seven games, averaging 49.40 and boasting a strike rate of 78.41. The talented right-handed batter also made headlines with an unbeaten 161 off 155 balls, featuring 19 fours and five sixes, for Delhi against Assam at the Maharana Pratap College ground in Dehradun.
Rawal led Delhi to Under-23 T20 Trophy final
Earlier this year, Rawal led Delhi to the Under-23 T20 Trophy final, where they narrowly lost to Madhya Pradesh by three runs. She was the second-highest run-scorer for her team, with 182 runs from nine matches, averaging 26 and striking at 85.94.
In the previous edition of the Senior Women’s One-Day Trophy, Rawal finished as the second-highest run-scorer, amassing 411 runs from eight matches at an average of 68.50 and a strike rate of 91.94, including two centuries and a top score of 141. She also played for East Delhi Riders in the Women’s Delhi Premier League.
After the Women’s T20 World Cup in the UAE, India handed ODI caps to six cricketers, including Rawal. The others were Minnu Mani, Tejal Hasabnis, Titas Sadhu, Saima Thakor, and Priya Mishra. Additionally, Saima and Uttarakhand’s Raghvi Bist made their T20I debuts against the West Indies earlier this month.