The curious case of Prema Rawat: Why India moved on from their long-awaited leg-spinner after one World Cup game

 

Prema Rawat (PC: RevSportz)

Trisha Ghosal, Manchester

For the best part of 18 months, one question kept surfacing around India Women: where was the leg-spinner? In a side that has repeatedly spoken about depth and variety, the absence of a specialist wrist-spinner had become one of the more curious subplots in their T20 set-up.

And whenever that question came up, one name followed it, Prema Rawat.

Rawat was no random World Cup replacement. She had quietly built a strong case through India A tours and domestic cricket, picking up wickets consistently and staying in the selectors’ orbit. Yet the call-up never came. India persisted with other combinations, while Sneh Rana’s reliability and Sree Charani’s rise only narrowed Rawat’s path further.

That is why her story feels so strange.

When Shreyanka Patil was ruled out of the Women’s T20 World Cup with an ankle injury, India turned to Rawat. The choice was not without merit. She had impressed in India A colours and, significantly, offered the leg-spin option India had ignored for months. But the circumstances of her debut could hardly have been tougher. Rawat was thrown straight into a high-pressure game against South Africa, effectively a must-win contest in the context of India’s campaign.

Her role in that game was limited. She came in at No. 9 with only four balls left and made 3 not out off two deliveries. With the ball, she bowled two overs for 21 runs. Expensive, yes, but hardly catastrophic in a game where other Indian bowlers also went for runs. More importantly, it was her debut, in a World Cup, in a pressure game, with no soft landing.

And yet, one match later, Rawat was out and Radha Yadav was back in for the Bangladesh game.

This is not about questioning Radha’s quality or impact. She took three wickets and justified the move on the day. But the bigger question remains: what exactly was Rawat judged on? Two overs in a World Cup debut? A brief cameo with the bat? If India believed she was good enough to be drafted into a World Cup squad and trusted in a defining group game, how could one outing be enough to move on?

That is the uncomfortable part of the Prema Rawat story. It is not simply about one player being dropped. It is about what that says of India’s idea of bench strength. Depth is not built by naming players in squads; it is built by backing them long enough to fail, adjust and settle.

India finally picked a leg-spinner. The curious part is that they seemed to lose faith almost immediately.

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The post The curious case of Prema Rawat: Why India moved on from their long-awaited leg-spinner after one World Cup game appeared first on Sports News Portal | Revsportz.



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