However, in January 2018, while watching her father, Sudhir, teach cricket at Yamuna Sports Complex in East Delhi\u2019s Surajmal Vihar, Parunika became interested in the sport, trading her tennis racquet for a cricket ball.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Since making that transition, her cricketing career has been through its ups and downs. But with gratitude, maturity and humour in her words, Parunika is poised to significantly contribute to India\u2019s U19 Women\u2019s T20 World Cup campaign, aiming to retain the title they won in 2023.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
\u201cI am feeling very grateful because it\u2019s a very exciting emotion \u2013 playing for India, that too in a World Cup is a big thing. I am also grateful for this opportunity because I was there in the quadrangular series ahead of the last World Cup, but couldn\u2019t make it to the tournament. So now being here and playing for India in the World Cup is a very special moment for me,\u201d said Parunika in an exclusive conversation with IANS before leaving for Kuala Lumpur.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
India\u2019s triumph in the inaugural Women\u2019s U19 Asia Cup, which co-incidentally happened in Malaysia last month, is also a big confidence boost. \u201cWe know the conditions over there now. The Asia Cup win has definitely helped us to calm the chills we were having and now we\u2019re just going to go there, play and do what we can do to our best.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n
\u201cOur coaches have been pretty clear about the roles and what they have told us is to just express ourselves there. When we are on the field, just do whatever we feel right and they are there to back us up and enjoy the game,\u201d added Parunika, who now trains at RP Cricket Academy in Gargi College under Surjeet Verma and Ajay Verma.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Amongst the highs in her bubbling cricketing career, where she\u2019s known for providing control, and bowling faster through the air with her variations, Parunika considers taking 5-26 on her debut for Delhi in the Senior Women\u2019s One-Day Trophy match against Jharkhand on October 31, 2021 as her \u201cfondest performance\u201d.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
\u201cI was straightaway called for seniors from U19 and everyone was just telling me to calm down. They were like \u2018Don\u2019t be nervous and just bowl. Even if you get hit, we\u2019ll just back you up\u2019. Then I went there and I came out with my first five-wicket haul. Till then, I never got a five-wicket haul and it came after the Covid-19 pandemic,\u201d she said.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Parunika\u2019s success in her debut senior women\u2019s game is all more remarkable given that she only took up cricket three years ago, and admitted to not liking the sport when she was into tennis, even before becoming a proper left-arm spinner.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
\u201cI used to go with him for my fitness sessions, and then from there, I started playing cricket doing the summer camps there. It raised my interest and then in 2018, I thought this is the game I want to play now for the upcoming years,\u201d she added.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Parunika and Sudhir, a former age-group cricketer for Uttar Pradesh who also played university cricket, believed she\u2019d excel as a batter despite her tennis background hindering her straight bat shots.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
\u201cThe first women\u2019s match I saw, Mithali Raj and Smriti Mandhana were batting together, and looked up to them as I was starting off as a batter. So my dad said, \u2018You should look up to them and see what they are doing\u2019. Seeing them play, I thought \u2018Oh, girls play like this too\u2019 as before then, I seriously had no idea about cricket that time. After I shifted to cricket, I was like, \u2018Oh girls play like this as well\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Later, she switched to medium-pace bowling, but one day, she unexpectedly started bowling left-arm spin. \u201cOne day it was raining. So we were not allowed to bowl medium-pace. I thought that, okay, I\u2019ll just bowl spin only then.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n
\u201cThen I think I was bowling well and my father saw it and he was like, \u2018You have to bowl spin now\u2019. I was like, okay, and that\u2019s where my spin bowling came into picture. As soon as I started being a spinner, I saw Daniel Vettori and he has always been my idol. I really look up to him now.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Named as a standby for Delhi\u2019s U23 team, Parunika made her U19 debut in 2019\/20, just before Covid-19 came, and became the seventh leading wicket-taker in the one-day tournament. Post-pandemic, Parunika became the second-highest wicket-taker in the 2021\/22 Senior Women\u2019s One-Day Trophy with 14 scalps \u2013 tied with three more bowlers on the list.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
In the next season, Parunika became the leading wicket-taker of the Senior Women\u2019s One-Day Trophy with 21 scalps and was also the top wicket-taker for North Zone winning the subsequent zonal tournament. Parunika\u2019s excellent performances led her to be roped in by the Gujarat Giants for the inaugural 2023 Women\u2019s Premier League (WPL) season.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Parunika confessed she felt star-struck to be in the dressing room alongside prominent Indian and foreign players. \u201cThe only thing I planned to do there was learn everything from them, like what and how they eat, how they do things and how they\u2019re going to play a match, their schedules and everything. There I just did this only and I was very satisfied with that.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Nooshin Al Khadeer, formerly the team\u2019s bowling coach and currently the head coach of India U19, was acquainted with Parunika. However, Parunika was more keen to meet Mithali, whom she admired since her childhood.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
\u201cI told my coaches that I want to meet and talk to Mithali mam because I idolised her. Then she came for the first day of practice, and said, \u2018Oh, hi Parunika, you\u2019re the left-hand spinner, right?\u2019 I said, \u2018Yes, ma\u2019am\u2019. I was so happy from inside that she knew my name and what I do in cricket. As soon as I got back to my room, I called my dad and told him \u2018You know, Mithali mam knows me\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Despite her team finishing last in WPL 2023, Parunika gained invaluable experience in managing pressure and controlling her nerves.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
\u201cI had never seen so many people watching and cheering for a women\u2019s game. Whenever we used to have a match against Mumbai Indians, only the Mumbai supporters were there filling the stadium. So it was very nice to see people cheering, but we as a team were calming our nerves, playing there and showing what we could do. WPL has brought a different change in Indian players.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n
The sadness of not being a part of the last India U19 batch, as they lifted the glittering World Cup trophy in 2023, also taught Parunika about \u2018focusing more on the controllables and what she can do the best for the team\u2019 now in the upcoming tournament.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
In the U19 Women\u2019s Asia Cup, Parunika picked nine wickets and was the second-highest wicket-taker in the tournament behind fellow left-arm spinner Aayushi Shukla\u2019s ten scalps. Much of India\u2019s success will rely on the left-arm spin quarter of Parunika, Aayushi, Sonam Yadav (the 2023 World Cup winner), and Vaishnavi Sharma, to befuddle and dominate opposing batsmen throughout the tournament.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
\u201cAll of us are very chill about picking wickets. Whoever was playing, we were like, \u2018Oh, now it\u2019s your day\u2019. There was a day where the three of us got four wickets one by one. So it\u2019s like all of us were just waiting when the other one is getting wickets. So now we have four left-arm spinners, and all of us were just talking like \u2018One match each and we\u2019re going to perform in one match each\u2019, so that we all are there in the game.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Aside from cricket, Parunika said sleeping is one of her favourite hobbies now as it helps her recover after playing lots of cricket. When not sleeping, she goes out with her friends' gang to just chill. She doesn\u2019t have much pressure of studies as compared to other 12th graders, as her family has said \u2018Just learn how much you know that you can pass now and then you leave it\u2019.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
If India goes all the way to win their second U19 Women\u2019s T20 World Cup title on February 2, Parunika will feel fulfilled about continuing a legacy of the team being the best U19 women\u2019s side in the cricketing world, and spark greater interest in the sport amongst fans back home.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Aside from cricket, Parunika said sleeping is one of her favourite hobbies now as it helps her recover after playing lots of cricket. When not sleeping, she goes out with her friends' gang to just chill. She doesn\u2019t have much pressure of studies as compared to other 12th graders, as her family has said \u2018Just learn how much you know that you can pass now and then you leave it\u2019.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
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