Top buy Ira excited to play at Wankhede

When the auction for the inaugural T20 Mumbai League’s women’s competition got underway, 16-year-old Ira Jadhav was 983 kilometres away at a BCCI U-19 camp. When the gavel came down, Ira emerged as the top buy, going to Akash Tigers for ₹10 lakh.

“I learned my value. I am so excited for this tournament and about the opportunity to play at a venue like the Wankhede,” Ira told The Hindu. “When the women’s league was announced, we were all very excited.”

Sport was always a part of Ira’s life; her mother, Shilpa, was a State-level athlete, while her father, Sachin, played tennis-ball cricket. She joined Dilip Vengsarkar’s Varrock Academy in Pune as a pacer, but when the COVID-19 pandemic struck, training moved to her terrace. Ira’s father set up nets and bowled to her; she picked up the bat and didn’t look back. “I like smashing bowlers over bowling,” she quipped. “My father was my first dedicated coach. He just watched YouTube videos and taught me. We are both learning at the same time. I am here because of him.”

Ira made a splash last season when she became the first triple centurion in BCCI’s U-19 women’s one-day tournament. She was later honoured with the Jagmohan Dalmiya Trophy for the Best Woman Cricketer (Domestic).

She is a student of Shardashram Vidyamandir where the likes of Sachin Tendulkar and Vinod Kambli studied.

“I’ve never worked on my six-hitting abilities as such. The season after [the camp], I just picked it up, and it’s becoming my strength. I like stepping out, using my feet. My strengths are in the forward ‘V’, but I want to work on my backward ‘V’ as well.”