"I want to be the fastest" - S Yashasri's sharp surge headlined by staredown with the speed gun [Exclusive]

Cricket fell in love with Yashasri first. At a time when she wasn't particularly into the sport, which by then had captured the eyes of many women around the country, her school team found itself needing a player. And a sports enthusiast of her reputation, coupled with her height and apparent strength, was never going to be overlooked for such a vacancy.

Cut to 2024, and Yashasri has learned to love the sport back. By her own admission, her life has started to revolve around it. When she wakes up in the morning, she thinks about her training goals for the day. When she goes to sleep, she evaluates whether they were completed.

Yashasri rinses and repeats this process, day after day. The 21-year-old insists that she doesn't like to skip training - in her own words, she "simply can't take a single day off."

So how did this change happen? It wasn't particularly gradual, even though a player as talented as Yashasri was always going to find it relatively easy to climb through the ranks. In an exclusive conversation with Sportskeeda, the cheery fast bowler, who is currently in Lucknow for an off-season camp with Women's Premier League franchise UP Warriorz, tells the story of how it all began.

“I wasn’t really interested in cricket," Yashasri recalls. "I used to play all sports. I was a tomboy, playing many sports, including gully cricket, but I never thought about it from a professional setting. There was an inter-school competition going on, and I just went in and said that I’ll play. The coach saw me with a hat on and asked me to try bowling. I didn’t even know how to; I only knew how to throw. It was fine then since no one in the team was particularly serious, but one of my teammates inspired me to start playing cricket. It was an open ground and we were bowling on the center wicket. I was throwing the ball for a long time!”

With bowling not coming easily to her at the start, Yashasri was enamored by the glamor of big hitting. At the same time, however, her inexperience in the sport led to plenty of tense moments. No other sport she played prepared her to face a small red rock hurtling towards her head.

“When I started bowling, I never used to bat. I used to be so scared to bat, even in the nets. My coach pulled me and forced me to bat. We were playing on a matting wicket and I got hit everywhere. Slowly I started focusing and understood that it’s a very good skill that I need to develop. At times, when I wasn’t doing too well with the ball, I used to think to myself ‘arey, spinner aur batter ban jana tha. Hitter ban jana tha, that’s better!’ [laughs] I started focusing on both since then; I’m not scared and I want to bat now!”

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"I was a nobody before the U19 World Cup" - S Yashasri

Yashasri in action for UPW in WPL 2023 [Image: wplt20.com]

Before the 2022 Women's U19 World Cup rolled around, Yashasri had been doing well, albeit on smaller stages. She was selected for NCA and high-performance camps, but a spate of persistent injuries meant that the selectors didn't have enough to pick her in the main squad for the marquee ICC competition.

Instead, Yashasri was named in the standbys. As fate would have it, however, an injury to Hurley Gala meant that she eventually made the grade. Things quickly took off from there, and a WPL call-up was always on the cards.

“To be very honest, I was a nobody before the U19 World Cup. Nobody knew me, even in domestic cricket. I was basically stuck at one level, and that was the senior level in Hyderabad. By god’s grace, I got the zonal camp call-up, and from there I was sent to the NCA, and from there the U19 World Cup, where I got exposure. People started recognizing me, and soon after that I got picked in the WPL.”

Yashasri's victorious U19 batch featured plenty of top talent. Shafali Verma and Richa Ghosh were already established players by then, but the likes of Shweta Sehrawat, Mannat Kashyap and Parshavi Chopra are very much in the thick of things in the WPL. In the fast-bowling department, Shabnam MD and Titas Sadhu are two of the most promising names in the country.

Yashasri fondly recollects how she took the news when UPW raised their paddle for her at the WPL 2023 auction.

"I wasn’t expecting to be picked in the WPL," Yashasri says. "Auctions were going on, and I was watching it at the start, but I was at the gym when my turn came. I was like ‘mera schedule mera hai, baad me dekhlegha kya hoga’. So I went on with my training and my mom called me and said, ‘Yashu! You got selected!’”

“I was very blank. I said thank you and cut the call, and in the gym everybody started celebrating. I started working out again. Thanks! [laughs] That is me; I don’t really show my emotions much. I become blank. I don’t know how to explain it," she concedes.

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Picking the brains of the legends at UP Warriorz

Australia Portraits - ICC Women's T20 World Cup 2024 - Source: Getty

Yashasri's journey led her straight from a zonal domestic team and an U19 team to a dressing room full of international superstars, including legends like Alyssa Healy and Shabnim Ismail.

"It was actually a very good experience for me," she says. "I got so much knowledge to take in. I was starstruck looking at the players in front of me. They are such reputed players who have played so much international cricket. I’ve learnt a lot. Every season, every day, it was like a knowledge book for me.”

As an overseas pro, UPW captain Healy wouldn't have found it easy to lead an Indian franchise full of inexperienced domestic players. But all the youngsters have only good things to say about the veteran keeper-batter, and Yashasri is no different.

“She is actually a very good person. You can approach her at any time, whether in practice or in matches, and she’ll guide you in the right way. In one match I played, she came to me on her own, asked me to stay calm, and backed me to execute my bowling. She has such a good skillset, and on top of that she has such a good mindset. She’s very strong mentally, and that’s something important that I’ve learnt from her.”

Women's Premier League - Delhi Capitals v Mumbai Indians - Source: Getty

WPL 2023 saw Shabnim Ismail play for the UP Warriorz before moving to the Mumbai Indians for the 2024 edition of the league. The certified fastest bowler in women's cricket history, the South African quick is known for her easygoing nature off the field. Yashasri, of course, didn't waste any time picking her brains.

“Shabnim is more like a friend than a senior. She’s such a sweet person. ‘Come Yashi, come, you wanna have chai? Come!’ is what she always tells me. One day, she wasn’t bowling but sat beside my runup to guide me. She told me what was good and what wasn’t, just to guide me. I didn’t ask her to; she did it on her own. She’s very chill, and I can hang out with her anytime.”

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Breaking barriers and staring down the speed gun ft. S Yashasri

Can Yashasri go where Ismail has gone? She clocked above 110 kph in the two WPL 2023 matches she played and is certainly on course to get quicker and better. If things go to plan, the speed records will be in danger as she enters her prime.

“As a bowler, I always think to bowl fast. My first motive is to bowl fast. I want to increase my pace day by day. A fast bowler needs to be quick. I want to be the fastest. But now, I think more than pace, I am focusing on executing well. At this stage of WPL, executing is important, and that I have understood,” Yashasri tells Sportskeeda.

When she was younger, Yashasri indulged in basketball, kho-kho, swimming and many other sports. Her current hobbies include 10-pin bowling and table tennis, while she wants to pick up tennis, pickleball and squash in the near future. In case it wasn't glaringly obvious, she loves herself a game, but none more than cricket.

"My life is around cricket," Yashasri says as she signs off.

“It is everybody’s dream to represent the country. ‘Do saal me khelna hai. Teen saal me khelna hai varna cricket hi chod dunga!’ - I don’t have any of this. [laughs] I take one game at a time, and I do my best in every game. I want people to look at me and think, ‘Oh! She’s playing; she’ll win the game for me.’ In 3 Idiots, Aamir Khan said ‘success ke peeche mat bhaago, kaabil bano.’ I want to become kaabil!”