Mahika Gaur made her England debut at the age of 18© Twitter
Having made her international debut at the age of 12, cricketer Mahika Gaur made history on Friday as she made her international debut for the second time, but on this occasion for England. As England took on Sri Lanka in a T20I, Mahika found her name in the playing XI. The crafty left-arm seamer. On her big day, Mahika also bagged her maiden international wicket, getting the better of Chamari Athapaththu. However, if it wasn’t for rain playing spoilsport, Mahika could’ve gotten more wickets.
Batting first, England went on to post 186 runs on the board, with Danielle Wyatt and Alice Capsey being the leading run-scorers. Chasing the target, Sri Lanka were 55/3 in 6 overs when rain put a halt to the match. England were declared winners by 12 runs, via DLS method.
England captain Heather Knight was full of praise for the 6ft 3 inches tall Mahika after the match. “Mahika was brilliant on her debut,” said Knight. “She had to move to death bowling after the rain and she executed her plan perfectly. At that height she gets real late swing which is quite a weapon.”
Mahika, who idolises MS Dhoni and Mitchell Starc, has already taken a step forward towards becoming a classy fast bowler. But, she wants to finish games like Mahi one day too.
Who is Mahika Gaur?
Born in Reading in the south of England Mahika decided to become a professional cricket player after an IPL match in Jaipur in 2011. It was the late Australian spinner Shane Warne, who starred in the Royals’ match against the Delhi Daredevils (now Delhi Capitals).
“I was practising bowling in the garden. I think my dad was just surprised that I could roll my arm fully without chucking the ball,” Gaur had said back in April this year. “He was a left-arm bowler in college but never got to do his cricket thing. But when he saw that I have potential, he’s always been on board.”
When Mahika’s family moved to Dubai, she enrolled in the ICC Academy and met the future UAE skipper Chaya Mughal. “The first time I went into ICC [Academy], she was training indoors and the coach over there, Adnan [Sabri] sir said that I can bowl to her.
“I was bowling loopy full tosses and she was defending them. She was the first person I bowled to there and I was star-struck. My dad told me she’s from the UAE national team – that was pretty cool,” Mahika revealed.
After making her debut for England, Mahika has played a total of 20 T20Is, claiming a total of 10 wickets. with a best of 3 for 21.
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