On 24th September, Sunday morning, in Hangzhou China, all-rounder Pooja Vastrakar stunned the stadium with a double strike in the first over of the game against Bangladesh. Not only that she took four wickets in one innings, and pushed India women's team into the final of the Asian Games.

Pooja's father, Bandhan Ram Vastrakar in an interview with the Indian Express talked about her experiences, ambitions and the achivement of playing for the India team. In the inaugural Women’s Premier League (WPL) auction, in February, the 23-year-old was picked by Mumbai Indians for a whopping Rs 1.9 crore. She soon gifted Bandhan Ram with a Rs 15 lakh car which he called, "a waste of money", he rather wanted his daughter to put the money into "fixed deposit". 

It was quite unbelievable for the retired BSNL employee that his daughter's passion and ambition would actually come into fruition and she would not only play for India but also fetch this amount of money.

“Since the age of four, she has been into cricket." Said Bandhan Ram. Pooja was introduced to sport by her elder sister Usha who was into athletics. "Till eight or nine, she used to play cricket in the gully with the boys. Then Ashutosh sir (Srivastava) watched her playing on a ground, came to our home and told my father to let her join his academy,"  said Usha in an interview with the Indian Express.

Pooja and her coach, Ashutosh Srivastava both hails from Shahdol, a small town in Madhya Pradesh’s Rewa district. He mistook her for a boy after seeing her hitting sixes off bowlers double her size.

Srivastava let her train with the boys because of her talent and she was the best among the boys in her age-group. Her father recalled, that once she was picked for the Madhya Pradesh Under-19 team and started earning money, she never asked for anything from him again rather she helped with money during her sister’s marriage. "Now she is helping India win a medal at the Asian Games" the proud father said.