Jemimah Rodrigues

Hailing from the city of dreams, Jemimah Rodrigues is a classy top-order batswoman who plays professional cricket for the Indian Women’s national team. The young charismatic batter showed sporting brilliance and potential to be a cricketer at the age of 16 when she scored a double-hundred in the Women’s U-19 50 over cricket.

Jemimah became the captain of Mumbai’s U-19 side and has also featured for Mumbai’s U-23, senior side and India’s U19 team. Although she has played consistently well for the Mumbai U-19, and was the highest run-getter in the year 2016-17 and 2017-18 in the domestic circuit.

In the 2016-17 season, she scored 665 runs over ten innings. In the following season, she bettered her performance by scoring 1,013 runs, which included five centuries and a double-ton. After an impressive show in domestic cricket, the blue jersey came calling.

She became the only cricketer after Smriti Mandhana to score a double-ton which earned her maiden call-up to the India A side. After her domestic exploits, she made her debut in the T20 side against South Africa on February 13, 2018.  She scored a crucial 37 runs and partnered with Mithali Raj, her idol, to see India chase out the total with ease. Jemimah scored her first T20I half-century against Australia on March 26, 2018. Then against Sri Lanka, she wrote history to become the first Indian woman to hit three consecutive sixes. and hit 36 runs off 15 balls in that match.

She received her first ODI cap from Harmanpreet Kaur in Vadodara. However, Rodrigues faced a hard task, as she scored just 1 in 8 balls in her debut ODI on March 12, 2018. In October 2018, at the age of just 18, she was named in India’s squad for the 2018 ICC Women’s T20 World Cup held in the West Indies. In her first match, Jemimah scored 59 against NZ women. In the run to the finals, she scored 93 runs. However, she was unable to emulate her performances in the finals, as India fell to Australia. After the conclusion of the tournament, she was named as the standout player of the team by ICC.

An impressive run in the prestigious tournament saw Jemimah cementing her spot in the Indian Women’s squad. She was also part of the Indian squad in the 2020 ICC Women’s T20 World Cup where the Mumbaikar scored 26 in 33 balls and pushed India to 132 in the repeat of the 2018 finals. However, the Indian women had their revenge as they bowled out Australia for 115. 

Known mostly for an aggressive type of cricket, Jemimah is also known for her capability of building a partnership. She can play anywhere among the batting order and can be a valuable asset when it comes to spin bowling,

(As of March 2021)