Sneh Rana's roller-coaster of a year

A season that began with rejection ended with a World Cup and a record contract for Sneh Rana

- Rudraneil Sengupta

This is how 2025 began for Sneh Rana: She found herself, once more in her cricketing career, left out of the Indian team. It had been almost two years since she got the axe from the T20 squad after India's exit at the 2023 World Cup semis, and more than a year since she was cut from the ODI team, despite being a prolific wicket-taker, to make way for a rising player. She had gone unsold at the auction for the 2025 Women's Premier League (WPL), a rarity for an Indian international, and a major financial loss.

Things were not looking good.

This is how 2025 ended for Sneh Rana: Drafted late into the Royal Challengers Bengaluru squad as an injury replacement, she took six wickets in five matches, and, in one innings, smashed 26 runs off just six balls, one of the highest strike rates in women's T20. She was picked again for the Indian ODI team, and with 15 wickets in five matches at a tri-nation tournament, including her first five-wicket haul, declared the player of the tournament. She was picked again for the Indian T20 side. She made it to the Indian World Cup squad. At the World Cup, she took seven wickets in six matches and scored 99 runs at an average just a shade under 50. As the Indian women made history with their first World Cup triumph, Rana held the cup aloft-she was part of the moment that promises to completely change the narrative of women's cricket in India.

"Roller-coaster year!" Rana laughs. "Isn't that what they say?"

This year, at 31, as she takes guard in a new season of the WPL, bought by Delhi Capitals for a ₹50-lakh contract, Rana is basking in cricketing glory like never before in her long career.

I meet Rana at her home in Dehradun, just a few weeks before the start of the ongoing WPL. Hers is a two-storeyed house with a pink façade featuring extensive latticework and bright blue doorways. Rana is in a Lincoln green hoodie and loose black denim, a cup of tea in hand, her shoulder-length hair open.