Kranti Gaud etches her name
In one innings, Krunti Gaud has gone from India’s equal 40th leading wicket taker to their 19th.
In one innings, Krunti Gaud has gone from India’s equal 40th leading wicket taker to their 19th.
That is not why she is smiling.
The sunglasses almost hide much of her face, but it’s clear that this is a joyous moment. The crowd is clapping, she holds the ball high, and faces every part of the ground. Then stops before the boundary line because there is one last part of the crowd she has missed.
For generations bowlers have walked off ahead of their team, with the ovation from the stands at Lord’s. It is part of the legacy. But this is different, this is not another decent spell, this is the ground’s first of this kind.
The Lord’s honour board is a thing of myth and legend amongst players. Every professional cricketer wants to get on their name there, it means more here than anyone else.
In cricket, we use the term etched into history all the time. It’s a constant phrase. But Lord’s started in 1814, in terms of sport, and even society, it is a different kind of historic place. And since the beginning the greatest players have visited here, desperate to get on the board. Sachin Tendulkar, Shane Warne, Brian Lara, Wasim Akram and Sunil Gavaskar are not written on the boards.
And until today, neither was any woman. But now Krunti Gaud will be etched into history as the first with a Test five wicket haul at Lord’s.
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Mohammad Nissar was a tearaway bowler for India when they entered Test cricket. Even for generations after, there were no Indian seamers like him. He was really quick, and quite aggressive, and in six Tests he took 26 wickets.
More importantly, he was the first Indian bowler on the Lord’s honours board.
The other seamers from India on that list include Kapil Dev and Jasprit Bumrah. If you take a look at the spinners, there is Chandrasekhar, Bishan Bedi and Vinoo Mankad. This is a very good list to be on.
And she did it in a way that would make any of the greats proud. After England had wasted the new ball, she came out in the dusk of day one, and probed. In Tammy Beaumont’s last Test, she crumpled her with one that jagged back.
For Maia Bouchier she delivered a wobble ball that nipped in again and scrambled the England batter’s mind. For Nat Sciver-Brunt, it was a straight delivery that caught her in front. But the best ball was to Alice Capsey.
She had already got the batter to inside edge to short leg, but the catch was dropped. To follow that up she swung the ball in, and when it landed, it decked away.
What was left was a Renaissance painting.
Capsey playing a near perfect forward defense in technical terms. Gaud screaming at the sky in celebration. And off stump sitting safely on the ground behind her. It was a renaissance painting for cricket.
If that was romantic, the fifth wicket was farce.
India moved Sneh Rana to second slip, and off the first delivery there, Lauren Bell could not have slashed the ball any harder — a thick edge hit Rana in the chest and ricocheted over her head.
None of this is usually a good sign for a bowler, but this time, Shafali Verma was lucky enough to see it, react and then leap behind her teammate to clutch a shocking one-hander.
This 22-year-old, a few weeks back, was overlooked for the World Cup at times. And when she did play against Australia, they gave her an over. In the WPL she almost never gets wickets and has a high economy.
And yet here she was, not only bowling well, but schooling the three England seamers. Gaud bowls slightly slower than the English quicks, but at a similar pace to Izzy Wong. But with double the accuracy. The English seamers sprayed it around like they were being tickled upon release. Wong struggled when it swung; Bell and Filer never put it in the right place.
Gaud looked like a 15-year county pro. She kept off stump in play, swung the ball early, and seamed it later. She completely bamboozled players who grew up playing seam.
Eight years ago, Gaud had never played with a leather ball. She was a kid who played tennis-ball cricket with the boys, while those in her village disapproved. Her first game was an accident when a team was short a player.
And now she is at Lord’s, teaching England how to bowl seam.
Considering their first Test was 1976, this Indian team really hasn’t played many matches. So it means you end up with these weird records like her jumping from 40th to 19th on the all-time leaderboard in one innings.
But this is India, and many of their wicket-takers have been spinners.
And so just by taking a couple of wickets at the WACA in her first Test, Gaud became one of 19 women credited with taking a wicket with seam for India.
Before this Test, she was equal 15th on the list; now she is sixth, and with a decent second-innings haul, fourth is still possible in this match.
Of course, to get first, she would have to go beyond Jhulan Goswami. The spiritual leader of India’s attack, and also the literal one. She was often a one-person army trudging in for India. But despite a 20-year career of pounding the crease, she managed 14 Tests, and obviously, none of them were at Lord’s.
So today, a bowler who was born after Goswami’s debut got a chance that her hero never did.
A young female Indian seamer, who was told when she was a kid not to play cricket, who picked up a leather ball by accident only eight years ago, is about to have her name written on the Lord’s honours board.
Written is the wrong term — etched feels right.