A new star is born in Indian women’s cricket. Pratika Rawal, in her sixth international match, not only struck her maiden century but scored a stunning 154 off 129 balls, hitting 20 fours and a six with a strike rate of 119.38 in the third ODI against Ireland at the Niranjan Shah Stadium in Rajkot.

Rawal partnered with Smriti Mandhana to put up a massive 233-run opening stand, the third-highest partnership by an Indian pair in women’s ODIs. Mandhana also stole headlines by scoring the fastest hundred by an Indian in WODIs, scoring 135 runs before getting out.

However, before starting her journey with cricket seriously Pratika used to play basketball regularly. She even has a gold medal in her kitty in basketball at the 64th School National Games in Delhi in January 2019.

Still, cricket was her passion. She started hitting a ball with the bat when she was in fourth standard! Her father Pradeep Rawal was a BCCI-qualified Level-1 umpire. But it was not easy to maintain both study and spend hours training cricket. 

Pratika who used to dream of settling her career with cricket in her early days, maintained her brilliance in study. Despite having secured 92.5 percent in the CBSE (twelfth standard board examination), Pratika went to the Rohtak Road Gymkhana Cricket Academy to train under the veteran coach Shravan Kumar, who has guided several cricketers - including Ishant Sharma and Nitish Rana.

The Rawal family lives in West Patel Nagar, a bustling neighborhood in the national capital, and runs a cable television service business. When Pradeep took a 10-year-old Pratika to the academy, Sharvan was surprised to see a ‘little girl so enthusiastic about the game’. 

“Whenever I would go for my matches, she would accompany me, and that’s how it started. That’s when she started going to the academy for training,” Pradeep said.

When she was in the sixth standard, Modern School approached her to join the institution.

 “Earlier, at the Gymkhana academy, she got very little time and scope was limited. But now she needed more time at training, and Dipti ma’am helped her a lot,” Pradeep revealed while speaking to the Sportstar.

Gradually, she made it to Delhi’s age-group teams and slowly made it to the senior women’s team. In her debut year in 2021, Pratika made headlines with a 155-ball 161 for Delhi, and went on to amass 552 List A runs in 14 games in the 2022-23 season and followed it up with 411 runs in seven innings in the next season.

It has been the indomitable spirit that has brought Pratika so far, and as she takes baby steps in international cricket, the 24-year-old has a long way to go.