Richa Ghosh, Indian wicketkeeper-batter shares how she handles the pressure role of being a finisher. Image: Matthew Lewis-ICC/ICC via Getty Images
The recent T20 World Cup might not have gone well for Richa Ghosh, with the Indian team making an exit in the group stages, but if the cricket philosophy of the 21-year-old keeper-batter is anything to go by, Ghose will, for sure, bounce back from the setback. Two years ago, the player from Bengal was dropped from the Indian team for the Commonwealth Games and last year from the Bangladesh tour, but the youngster took them on the chin. Cricket has, she says, taught her not to get carried away either by the highs or the lows but to forge ahead, looking to improve every day. In an interview with Forbes India, Ghosh shares her feelings about making it to the World Cup team at 16 (in 2020), how seniors rallied around her for her to segue into the cut-throat world of international cricket, and how she handles the pressure role of being a finisher. Edited excerpts:
‘I started with TT, but cricket was first love’
My hometown, Siliguri, in West Bengal, was a hub of table tennis when I was growing up. My father, Manabendra Ghosh, a cricketer at Baghajatin Cricket Club, the local cricket club, took me to play table tennis. But I spent a lot of hours on the cricket ground with my father, and I knew that was the sport I wanted to play. However, I never considered playing it professionally at this stage since neither my father nor I knew much about women’s cricket. Initially, I would always play with the boys, and it was easy to gel in with them because, with my cropped haircut, I looked like one of them. When dad got to know about the national or the state-level women’s teams, he pulled his socks up to hone my skills. That’s how he slowly steered me towards professional cricket step by step—starting with the district camp and then onwards.
‘From dad to Jhulan Goswami, inspiration came in many forms’
Since my father was my biggest influence in cricket, it is perhaps no wonder that he was also my first role model. From a young age, I was a fan of power-hitting. I would try to go for lofted shots, pulls, sweeps, what have you. This is something I had picked up from my father. Then, when I started to watch men’s cricket, my first big inspirations were Sachin Tendulkar and Mahendra Singh Dhoni, especially Dhoni, because I would try to emulate his roles as a wicketkeeper and a power-hitter. Aside from them, one of the biggest nods I have received from senior elite players was when I was part of a district camp early in my career. Former cricketer Jhulan Goswami had come for the trial and told me I was playing well and should keep at it. Seeing her from close proximity stoked the aspiration of donning the national colours, just like her.
‘Playing the first World Cup at 16 left me speechless’
I played in my first World Cup at age 16, during the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup in 2020. The selection helped me win a challenge with my under-13 coach, who had asked me when I would play for India, and I had told him within three years. Of course, the challenge was in jest, and my coach was really happy that I met my goal. When the news of my selection came through, I was in the middle of a match, so my family heard it before me—I suspect they were even more happy than me. I got the news only when the press reached out. I was happy, but perhaps the satisfaction of having reached one of my biggest goals had left me speechless, without much outward expression, even as congratulations from teammates poured in.Also read: The WPL has been a gamechanger for women’s cricket: Mumbai Indians’ Charlotte Edwards
‘Support from my seniors took the pressure off me’
I never felt the pressure of playing high-level international cricket right from the time I joined the India team at a young age. This is largely due to my senior teammates, who’ve always given me the freedom to play my natural game without thinking about its consequences. I always received the backing of seniors when I started playing for the Bengal team. That continued when I debuted with the national team. Goswami, whom I had met before, was part of the team, plus players like Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana, and my first national coach, WV Raman, always backed my style of playing. That took the pressure off me as I executed my attacking batting.
My role as a finisher on the Indian team is a pressure role. But that doesn’t bother me because I have loved such situations from a young age. Extricating the team from a tricky situation spurs me on. Playing in such situations throughout my career—first for Bengal and now for India—has helped me handle such situations easily.
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‘Cricket has taught me how to stay grounded’
I was dropped from the team for the Commonwealth Games and last year’s tour of Bangladesh. Those phases were crucial for me because I didn’t consider them as setbacks—for me, they afforded me crucial time to work on my game and improve, time that you don’t usually get in the middle of a season. It’s among the many life lessons that cricket has taught me—how to ride through the highs and lows and never get carried away. So, while the drops from the national team didn’t break me, the wins also don’t give me super highs that I lose myself in joy. Staying grounded in life and humility have to be the most important lessons the sport has taught me because every innings begins from zero.