India women’s team pacer Jhulan Goswami on Tuesday said that she was so upset with her performance in the first two matches of the Women’s World Cup, that she asked coach Tushar Arothe to drop her from the playing XI, the PTI reported.

However, Arothe not only backed the tall pacer from Bengal, but also got full support from team captain Mithali Raj. The 34-year-old went on to play a key role in India’s runners-up finish at the event.

“I was very disappointed of my show in the early stage of the [Women’s] World Cup,” Jhulan said after being felicitated by Chief Minister Mamata Bannerjee at Cricket Association of Bengal’s annual awards ceremony at the Netaji Indoor Stadium on Tuesday.

“After the match against the West Indies, I told my coach Tushar, ‘I’m not bowling properly and you can drop me next time.’ But he said ‘No, I want you to be there and lead the bowling attack’,” the speedster added.

Jhulan said the coach’s inspiring words worked wonders for her as she worked over time with Mithali and went on to produce a gem of a delivery to castle Australia skipper Meg Lanning for a duck during India’s splendid 36-run win to oust the six-time champions in the semi-final.

“[The] Australia match was important for us. They are the best team in the world. Lanning is one of the best cricketers and very strong square of the wicket. I wanted to make sure to bowl in right areas,” Goswami shared. “I told Mithali that I would bowl to her like I would to Lanning and she would give me feedback. Luckily, everything went our way.”

Changing gears

Jhulan was wicketless in India’s first two matches – she went 0/39 against England and 0/37 against the West Indies – but claimed 10 wickets in the remaining seven matches.

In the final against England, Jhulan’s tidy spell of 3/23 had helped India restrict England to a modest 228/7 but the visitors fell short by nine runs in the end to lose out on the trophy.

Just before the World Cup, Jhulan crossed Australian Cathryn Fitzpatrick’s tally of 180 wickets to become the highest wicket-taker in women’s One-Day Internationals and the fast bowler thanked the CAB for the unrelenting support, stating, “Their contribution is massive.”

Jhulan said that initially she was apprehensive of the facilities (the CAB offered) when she shifted base to Kolkata from Mumbai in 2005-06 but the association supported her in every possible way.

“The first question that came to my mind was whether I would get the same kind of opportunities here,” she commented. “Preparation was always very important for me. Result won’t come without preparation. Most of the time we had the opportunity to practice alongside the men cricketers in Mumbai.”

“I could bowl at the likes of Sameer Dighe, Praveen Amre when they played for Air India at one point of time. But now I’ve no hesitation in saying that I’m thankful to CAB for the way they have supported women’s cricket for the last 10 years and created a platform.”

“I am indebted to them and hope many more players come up in future. For last 10 years whenever I requested, the officials always provided me with practice facilities. I’m thankful to CAB officials and curator,” she added.

Goswami received Rs 10 lakh and a plaque by the chief minister and the CAB president Sourav Ganguly.

The chief minister also felicitated the Bengal Under-19 team who became the all-India champions after winning the Cooch Behar Trophy in 2017. Bengal had defeated Delhi to win the title after 19 years.

CAB also honoured veteran coach Palash Nandy with the Kartick Bose Lifetime Achievement Award and a cheque of Rs two lakh. Nandy was the coach of the 1989-1990 Ranji Trophy side side when Ganguly made his domestic debut.