Renuka Singh Thakur's swing continues posing questions batters have no clue about

29th July 2022, Edgbaston, the Indian women’s cricket are nervously looking over their shoulders when Renuka Singh Thakur is handed the ball. The Women in Blue have done well to put up 154 in their first innings but against an all-conquering Australian side, it does not feel enough. The Indian women’s cricket team are also playing their first match ever at the Commonwealth Games. So, there is a fair bit of pressure to contend with.

As Alyssa Healy and Beth Mooney walk out to the centre, there is a buzz around the ground. Most of the spectators have come out supporting India, yet, almost each one of them is in awe of this irresistible Australian batting pair.

Healy, for those unaware, brushed India aside at the 2020 Women’s T20 World Cup final. Mooney, while not being as flamboyant as Healy, played her part too. In between, they’d also won the Women’s World Cup earlier in the year. They had arrived at the Commonwealth Games as the team to beat.

Renuka, though, seems unfazed. She runs up to bowl and the first delivery lands on a back of a length outside off stump. Healy goes back and jabs the ball into the off side. No alarms, no cause of excitement for the Indian fans, and nothing to get worried from an Australian perspective.

Renuka Singh Thakur has been sensational at CWG 2022

The very next moment, however, something changes. Renuka pitches the ball slightly fuller and on a pitch that hadn’t provided much assistance, she extracts some help. Healy has a waft at it and only manages a thick outside edge that is snaffled up by Deepti Sharma at first slip.

An over later, Renuka runs into Meg Lanning, the top-ranked women’s T20I batter on the planet. A few balls ago, she has seen Lanning scythe Meghna Singh past backward point. Lanning, for those unaware, is one of the best exponents of the cut stroke in the sport. So, when Renuka dangles the carrot out wide, several Indian fans sit in trepidation.

The only difference this time is that Renuka gets the ball to bounce and seam a tad extra. Lanning deploys the shot anyway, only to slice it straight to backward point. Mooney departs next, chopping a back of a length delivery onto her stumps. The main event, though, is yet to come.

Tahlia McGrath, who has broken onto the international scene in the past couple of years, has a superb T20I batting record. She has only batted on a handful of occasions but whenever she has, she has won the Player of the Match award. She begins ominously too, racing away to 14 off 7 balls.

Then, she runs into Renuka, who doesn’t just leave her stumps in a mess but also metaphorically proclaims to the rest of the field that India are here to compete, and not just make up the numbers. This delivery, in many ways, is emblematic of everything good about her bowling. It might not stand out prima facie because she doesn’t bowl with as much pace as some of her contemporaries. However, there is plenty of skill involved – skill that you can only appreciate if you watch her closely.

For the McGrath dismissal, she started the ball outside off stump, induced the batter into thinking a cover drive was there for the taking before snaking it past her inside edge and onto the stumps. McGrath looked on in disbelief, almost querying to her partner and those around if it had actually happened.

Tahlia McGrath's stumps were left in a mess after being dismissed during India's opening CWG fixture

For a moment, it felt an aberration but when Renuka meted out the same dose to Deandra Dottin, another world-class T20I batter, it became clear that this could very well become the norm for years to come. Against Barbados, Renuka also accounted for Aaliyah Alleyne, Hayley Matthews and Kycia Knight.

Among all of that, she also had time to recreate one of Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s iconic ODI dismissals (against Mohammad Hafeez and Pakistan). When Alleyne was on strike, she started the ball in the fifth stump channel outside off stump. The batter, seeing the line, left it alone, only to hear the death rattle soon after.

Renuka, in that sense, is quite similar to Bhuvneshwar. She doesn’t have pace to burn, although she can swing and seam the ball as much as anyone in the women’s game. Throughout the Commonwealth Games, she has also shown that batters can’t easily attack her. Lanning, Matthews and Mooney have all perished while trying to transfer the pressure, and that, for any bowler in the world, is a pretty impressive CV.

Thus, Renuka’s importance to India’s setup can’t be overstated enough. Not just because she is picking truckloads of wickets and swinging herself into the history books, but also because powerplay control is a crucial component in any T20I outfit’s success.

Just a few weeks ago, Bhuvneshwar tied Jason Roy and Jos Buttler in knots, ultimately paving the path for a series victory. During the Commonwealth Games, too, Katherine Brunt has led England’s charge and despite not being as quick as she once was, has illustrated that there is really no substitute for proper swing and seam bowling.

Fortunately for India, they have Renuka fit and firing on all cylinders. As things stand, it also seems that most teams don’t have a clue about how to solve this quandary.

India are slated to clash swords with England on Saturday, and the way the narrative has panned out, you could bet your house Renuka will have a massive role to play. India have a galaxy of match-winners, there’s no doubt about it. But for the first time in a while in a T20I, it feels their fortunes could depend on how their star pacer performs.

This CWG has been all about changing perceptions, and Renuka seems to have embraced that better than anyone.