When Shreyanka Patil took the field for Barbados Royals in the Women’s Caribbean Premier League (WCPL) in September last year, it felt like she was restarting her cricket journey from scratch.
That WCPL stint came after a harrowing 11-month period where Shreyanka was forced to sit out owing to injuries.
When the off-spinner finally returned to competitive cricket, a second lease on life began. “I was all excited when I bowled my first ball. I said, ‘I’m fine now’.
All my nerves eased down,” Shreyanka said in a virtual media interaction on Wednesday.The long layoff, tough as it was, gave Shreyanka the chance to pick the brain of many a top cricketer. While undergoing her rehabilitation sessions at the BCCI Centre of Excellence (COE) here, the 23-year-old interacted with the likes of Suryakumar Yadav, Riyan Parag and Mayank Yadav.
Shreyanka also met Jasprit Bumrah, who shared tips on how to deal with injuries, and how to bowl in the death overs.
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“I wanted to ask him how to practise when it comes to bowling yorkers. Do you bowl to hitters, or do you just do spot bowling? He came up with some brilliant answers. More than cricket, he also told me that everyone goes through what I went through (injury layoff),” Shreyanka said.
Bumrah impressed upon Shreyanka not to fight the injury recovery process, but to take it in her stride. “That was lovely advice, because he has also gone through a lot of injuries and missed out on a lot of cricket,” Shreyanka said.
The Karnataka cricketer is most grateful that despite the injury, Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) retained her for the Women’s Premier League, which commences on Friday.
A call from RCB coach Malolan Rangarajan left Shreyanka at a loss for words. “Malolan sir called me and said, ‘Patil, you have been retained. I was actually blank. I was shocked because to trust someone who has not played for 13-14 months – that gives so much confidence and motivation for any young cricketer,” she said.
After the call with Malolan, Shreyanka called her coach Arjun Dev to let it all out. “I called Arjun sir and started crying… I had that nice feeling of just receiving so much love.
I felt so cute all over again,” Shreyanka said.Published on Jan 07, 2026
