Reddy 2.0 roars at big stage

After falling off the radar in 2020, Arundhati found her confidence to make a comeback TMS @ WOMEN'S WORLD CUP KALYANI MANGALE DUBAI A RUNDHATI Reddy was always supposed to be the superstar.

- KALYANI MANGALE

One of her nicknames, just when she started bowling fast as a 12-year-old, was- Choti Jhulu.

When the 15,935-strong crowd at the Dubai International Stadium cheered their hearts out for the Hyderabad pacer, every time she took her mark, it wasn't hard to see why.

However, the stop-and-start journey that took Reddy from her hometown to Dubai was certainly not smooth- unlike her bowling action. Former India A and Hyderabad all-rounder Ananya Upendran would know. "I know Arundhati Reddy because we have been teammates since 2009," Upendran told this daily. "We essentially grew up together. She came onto the scene, five years after I started playing. I started bowling fast like all kids who want to bowl fast, I think, it was very similar to her. Except she was taller and lankier, which made her a good athlete.

That's how it started." Despite having a gap of five years between them, Upendran remembers watching the youngster come up the ranks in a ride that started on Reddy's U19 debut. "I remember her U19 debut clearly and more for her batting than bowling.

We were playing against Andhra in Hyderabad. We were 100 and something for six with 20 odd overs left and then she walked in very nervously.