After being sidelined by injuries over the past eight months, the Mumbai Indians allrounder is ready to make up for lost time
Hemant Brar25-Feb-2025 [I am born to fly. There can be hurdles, but they cannot make me forget how to fly].” That was Amanjot Kaur, Mumbai Indians’ seam-bowling allrounder, after a thrilling, penultimate-ball win against Royal Challengers Bengaluru in WPL 2025.Those who were at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium that day did witness Amanjot flying. After MI opted to bowl first, she picked up 3 for 22 to help restrict RCB to 167 for 7. Her victims: Ellyse Perry, Richa Ghosh and Georgia Wareham.MI were cruising towards the target when Wareham turned the game around by dismissing a well-set Harmanpreet Kaur and S Sajana off successive deliveries. Before walking back, Harmanpreet told Amanjot, [If you stay there, we will win easily].”Related
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Amanjot, who was on 19 off 21 at that point, did not let her captain down. With 22 needed from 12 balls, she hit Kanika Ahuja over long-on twice in the 19th over to all but confirm the result.Her performance fetched her a first Player-of-the-Match award in the WPL. What made it even more special was the fact that she was making a comeback following a stress fracture of the back and a hand injury. It was only her third high-profile outing after a layoff of eight months.”Two people must have shed happy tears today: my coach Nagesh [Gupta] sir and my strength and conditioning trainer Tanuja [Lele] ma’am,” Amanjot said after the match. “They were with me throughout those six to eight months. So it is a big moment for them too. Both will sleep happily tonight.”Gupta has been Amanjot’s coach since 2016. He was too excited to get any sleep that night, but he did post on Instagram a couple of days later: “Happy to cry a few more times this WPL.”Amanjot had made a similar flying start to her India career as well. On her T20I debut, in 2023, she scored an unbeaten 41 off 30 balls against South Africa in East London to be the Player of the Match. Six months later, she kicked off her ODI career with figures of 4 for 31 against Bangladesh in Mirpur.Amanjot’s 34 not out off 27 balls took Mumbai Indians home with one ball to spare•BCCIThose performances kept her in and around the national team. During that time, she also became an integral part of MI, playing every game for them in the first two WPL seasons. But given the depth MI possessed both in batting and bowling, Amanjot hardly got a chance to showcase her talent. She batted mostly at No. 7 or No. 8 and bowled just five overs across 19 games.But then, in May 2024, those injuries stopped her flight and ruled her out of a potential place in India’s T20 World Cup squad. It was a big setback.”That was not an easy phase,” she says. “When I got to know about the extent of the injury, I troubled my trainer and coach a lot. I was like, how could this happen to me? I love doing gym, never miss a session, never eat outside.”Once the denial phase was over, perspective started seeping in. So much so that now she has “no regrets” about missing the World Cup. “In fact, I feel blessed and grateful for that phase to be part of my life, because I got to learn a lot from it. While I was not allowed to play, I watched lots of cricket at the NCA [during the rehab]. Riyan Parag was there, Khaleel Ahmed was there, Surya[kumar Yadav] was there. You learn a lot even by talking to them.”
“When she came to me for the first time, she was mainly a bowler. One day when she was giving close catching practice to kids, I noticed her bat swing was very straight and had a good punch. I asked her to bat in the nets and she batted really well”Nagesh Gupta on developing Amanjot Kaur into an allrounder
Gupta, too, noticed the changes in her during this period. “She grew a lot as a person,” he tells ESPNcricinfo. “She has become more humble – I think that’s what setbacks do to you. You are thinking everything is going well, but when you have a setback, you realise there’s god, too. I think she is much closer to god now and prays more often.”Amanjot, too, spoke along similar lines after the match: “Whatever helps my cricket, I am ready to do it. The rest is up to god. God’s plans are always greater than ours.” The next morning, she shared a photo of her visit to Bengaluru’s Gurudwara Sri Guru Singh Sabha as her Instagram story.After recovering from the injuries, she returned to action during the One-Day Challenger Trophy this January. And she was flying again. In her first match, she struck 38 off 24 balls. In the next, she returned 3 for 40 from nine overs.Once the tournament was over, it was time to gear up for the WPL. Amanjot knew Pooja Vastrakar might not be available this season, and she would have to shoulder extra responsibility. “Before the start of the WPL, I told my coach, ‘irrespective of the position I bat at, I want to finish the games’. I didn’t want to take the chase to the 20th over because, under pressure, sometimes you are not able to execute even your best shots.”So I wanted to finish it off in the 19th, or bring it down to a run-a-ball for the final over because the new batter [16-year-old G Kamalini, in this case] would have taken time to settle. I didn’t want to put that pressure on her.”Amanjot receives the BCCI award for the best international debut among women•BCCIAs luck would have it, Ahuja, who is Amanjot’s team-mate at Punjab, came on for the 19th over. “It was god’s plan,” Amanjot says. “I have played alongside Kanika a lot. She does not give batters much time. But I knew what area I could target without taking much risk. I had calculated that we needed either four fours or two sixes.”She duly hit two sixes, her first and second in the WPL. In fact, she is yet to hit a six across her six ODIs and 12 T20Is.It is a skill she has developed recently, Gupta says. “When she came to me for the first time, she was mainly a bowler. She had a good action and nippy pace. One day, when she was giving close-catching practice to kids, I noticed her bat swing was very straight and had a good punch. I asked her to bat in the nets and she batted really well. From there on, I decided I would develop her into an allrounder.”Till 18 months ago, she was a touch player. She would place the ball in the gaps and – since she is a good athlete – would score her runs in that manner. But over a period of time, she realised she needed to develop her power game too.”Amanjot’s hard work paid dividends on that night. After all, as the saying goes, god helps those who help themselves.Amanjot was out of action for about eight months because of injuries•PTI Gupta, meanwhile, is convinced that her best is yet to come, both as a batter and as a bowler. “Despite injuries, she has been touching 108-110kph. As her confidence grows, she can bowl in the range of 112-115kph.”Amanjot does not have the height to trouble batters with the bounce. She is more of a skiddy, wicket-to-wicket seamer, and “that’s how she bowled Richa Ghosh,” Gupta says.Given Amanjot grew up playing hockey, football and handball, fielding comes naturally to her. “She is a complete package,” Gupta says. “She has a really good arm. Sometimes I even tell her that she reminds me of Andrew Symonds.”What does Amanjot want next? “I want to carry this momentum forward,” she says. “I want to finish the game, be it for MI, India, or any other team. I don’t want to leave it for anyone else.”And, perhaps, she wants to soar.
