India’s tour of Bangladesh: Minnu Mani turns into the primary from Kerala to get picked in Indian girls’s squad

Minnu’s choice ought to encourage Kerala’s younger feminine cricketers.
| Photograph Credit score: Particular Association

One of many shock packages within the Indian girls’s squad for the tour of Bangladesh is Minnu Mani. Her choice, within the T20 squad, is really outstanding. It’s for the primary time {that a} Kerala cricketer is making it to the senior Indian girls’s group.

Kerala could also be one of many powerhouses of Indian sports activities, having produced among the nation’s greatest stars in disciplines like athletics, soccer and volleyball, nevertheless it can not boast that many large achievements in cricket, although issues are quick altering. In males’s cricket, solely 4 have performed for India to date – Tinu Yohannan, S. Sreesanth, Sanju Samson and Sandeep Warrier.

Kerala is not the pushover it was once for many years in males’s cricket. Kerala’s feminine cricketers are making fast progress, too. Minnu has been one of many causes for that.

The off-spinning all-rounder has been performing somewhat persistently for the previous couple of seasons. She is an outstanding fielder, too.

“She deserves her spot in the Indian squad,” Nilima Jogalekar, former India wicket-keeper who has watched Minnu quite a bit in her function as a match referee, advised The Hindu.

“I have found her pretty good in all departments of the game. And it is nice to see Kerala is doing well in women’s cricket. In my time as a player, you hardly came across anyone from Kerala.”

The ladies’s academy that the Kerala Cricket Affiliation arrange in Wayanad has performed its half within the improvement of the sport. Minnu is a product of the academy, which isn’t too removed from her dwelling.

The 24-year-old belongs to the Kurichiya tribe, which, in response to her, doesn’t encourage ladies to take up sport. There was no stopping Minnu, although.

A number of months in the past, she was picked up by Delhi Capitals for the inaugural Ladies’s Premier League. She couldn’t fairly make a mark within the three video games she performed, however her nice present on the home circuit wasn’t ignored by the selectors.

She received’t be the primary Malayali to play for India, although. That honour belongs to Susan Itticheria, who represented Tamil Nadu, again within the Seventies.

Minnu’s choice ought to encourage Kerala’s younger feminine cricketers.