Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh woman in test team after 15 years

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): After one and half decade, Madhya Pradesh Woman Cricket back to shine again in international test cricket.

Pooja Vastrakar, 21, made her debut against England in the ongoing test series at County Ground in Bristol and picked up her maiden wicket on Wednesday.

She is the first woman cricketer from the Vindhya region of the state to play test cricket for India and also the 10th woman from Madhya Pradesh to represent India in test cricket.

Before Pooja, Nidhi Buley from Indore had made her debut in International Test cricket in 2006. Rajeshwari Dholakia, Sandhya Agrawal, Minoti Desai, Rekha Punekar, Rupanjali Shastri, Arundhati Kirkire are other women cricketers from the state who have played international test cricket matches for India.

Pooja Vastrakar, a resident of Shahdol district, made debut in an international ODI against South Africa at Potchefstroom in February 2018. The right arm medium pacer has played six ODIs and twenty T20 international matches for India.

Notably, she had sustained serious injuries during a one day international match played against England at Nagarpur in April 2018. Since, she was out of the team and recovering from injuries.

In March 2021, she made a comeback in domestic cricket and performed with bat and ball both for Madhya Pradesh. On the basis of her performance, she made come in Indian woman cricket team and got a chance to make her debut in test cricket.