After being benched against England, Jemimah Rodrigues returned to the side and put on a fine show against New Zealand. Aadya Sharma looks at an ODI career that deserves a lot more.
For a player who donned the India kit as a teenage prodigy months after the 2017 World Cup, it might seem strange that this is Jemimah Rodrigues’ first ODI World Cup. She’s played four iterations of the T20 version, but the wait has been long for this one.
And even this time, it hasn’t been easy.
On Thursday, at a ground she can call her home, Rodrigues played a defining knock, one that gave a flourish to India’s huge total against New Zealand, in turn sealing a place in the semi-final. It only added to what has been statistically her best year in ODI cricket, but not really an easy one.
Rodrigues came into the New Zealand game with a point to prove; somehow, this has been the case most of her career. It was coming on the back of being dropped against England, in a game India lost from a position of strength, bungling a chase that once looked in control.
After India lost by four runs, coach Amol Muzumdar called her “a very important player, an integral part of this side we have built”. According to him, it was a tactical call to include a sixth bowler, with Rodrigues being the batter making the way. At that point, she had managed two ducks, a 32 (37) against Pakistan, and a 33 (21) against Australia. In the second game, her dismissal was part of a collapse of 6-36, with 330 not proving enough.
The Australia chase prompted a change of balance, and Rodrigues made way in the next game.
It was a move that surprised many. Firstly, she has had a remarkable year so far, having hit two centuries and two fifties, striking at 110. In the last 12 months, she’s hit the most runs by a non-opener. With a 500-run cutoff, her strike-rate is bettered only by Richa Ghosh, Alyssa Healy and Ash Gardner in this period.
Rodrigues’s career-best 123 in May was a fine example of the dynamism she offered. Coming in at 50-3 against South Africa in the tri-nation series, she started off with her usual staples: clean drives through covers and cuts and steers past point.
Against New Zealand on Thursday, she walked in a largely different circumstance. For the first time since 2021, she got a go at three. By then, the opening pair had already put 212 in 34 overs. They needed to carry on the good work, and not succumb to collapses like they did against Australia and England. Rodrigues ensured that flourish was provided with due diligence.
Jemimah Rodrigues: A forever improving ODI player
The constituents were all like her other best works. The thoughts seemed crisp: one of the finest players of spin around, she stayed stable for anything full and straight, pumping it over covers. For anything fuller but wider, her blade would open up to access the space past point. Cleverly and calculated, she read and picked her gaps.
Rodrigues has often spoken about this flexibility she offers to the team. She’s batted everywhere from opening to No.6 in the format. Ahead of the World Cup, she repeated it by saying: “Wherever I am, I want to contribute to the team, and if the team believes I can do well in a particular place or in any position, I want to be ready for it.
“A lot has changed with my preparation, my mindset. I am someone who wants a lot of confidence coming from it, to be ready for anything on the field. That gives me a lot of clarity”.
A big part of that change came in 2022, when Rodrigues did not play a single ODI, and was dropped for the World Cup that year. It clearly broke her, but only to make her better.
“I used to cry almost every night and was struggling mentally,” she told Sportstar in September. “I even took a short break because I couldn’t handle being dropped and missing out on playing for my favourite team.” After a brief period of wallowing, she got to work with her coaches, setting base at Azad Maidan and played on dewy and turning pitches, conditioning herself to excel when the easier surfaces came.
When she returned in 2023, Rodrigues found herself being pushed out of her comfort zone. Until then, she had batted exclusively in the top three. In her first two series on return, she batted at four, five and six. But it spoke about her character when she gave a positive spin to this challenge as well.
“If that [switch to middle order] had not happened, I maybe wouldn't have tried a few shots that I have started playing. I wouldn't try to access different areas of the ground.” Admitting that No.5 is a tricky position in one-dayers, given that her role could see her coming in the powerplay or the 35th over, she stopped overthinking and eased into the job, learning on the go to juggle different roles.
An example of those two contrasting roles came in the South Africa knock in May, when she came in in the seventh over, and the New Zealand game, when she walked out in the 34th over. In both cases, she delivered.
For the dynamism she offers, India’s approach towards Rodrigues is intriguing. She was dropped for the 2022 World Cup after failures against South Africa and England, when she managed 22 runs across a five-match stretch. It coincided with the time she was briefly out of the T20I setup too, despite a whirlwind Hundred season in 2021, where she finished second-best among runs and struck at 151.
Since then, she’s only built on her game, adding more strokes and power, while still being true to her strengths: craftily figuring out gaps and pushing herself physically to fill in her innings with running between the wickets. In the last 12 months, no other batter has scored more runs in the No.3 to No.6 slot. And she’s done it at a strike-rate of 106.
Why Rodrigues is crucial to India
Since the end of the last World Cup, with a 500-run cutoff, only Suzie Bates and Smriti Mandhana have recorded a lower dot ball percentage than Rodrigues in the middle overs (11-40) of ODIs; testament to her ability to keep the scoreboard ticking, and confirmation of what the eye sees, in judging her as a “busy” player at the crease.
Other teams would fight each other to secure such a talent.
The scoring rate is important, because India’s current set up is such that they run the risk of slowing down in the first half. When Pratika Rawal and Harleen Deol (strike-rates 82 and 79 in the last 12 months) are in the top three, more impetus is needed in the middle overs. For her own benefit, Rodrigues could flourish at one-down, but has embraced the more difficult role, even if it’s come with the added pressure of being dropped midway through the World Cup.
For that brief “bad” phase in 2022, the usually bubbly Jemi lost her spunk, even pretending to be happy at home just for her parents. Today, she’s much more secure, grown and refined. It’s now on India to make the most of her incredible talent.
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