Who is Pratika Rawal? This woman cricketer is a psychology student and also won gold medal in basketball
She created history by maintaining a wonderful balance between studies and sports along with cricket;
In the last ODI match against Ireland, Pratika Rawal scored 154 runs off 129 balls with the help of 20 fours and a six at the Niranjan Shah Stadium in Rajkot and scored her first ODI century. The 24-year-old scored the fourth-highest score in women's cricket for India as her first ODI century. Pratika performed brilliantly in her second ODI, scoring 76 runs off 86 balls and also took two wickets for 37 runs in 5 overs. Pratika is a student of psychology and this subject helped her a lot in cricket.
Pratika Rawal won the gold medal in basketball
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) shared a video in which Rawal explained how the study of psychology helped shape her cricket career. Rawal graduated in Psychology from Jesus and Mary College, New Delhi after scoring 92.5 percent marks in the CBSE 12th board exam. Pratika also played basketball and won gold medal at the 64th School National Games in January 2019.
Studying psychology helped in play cricket
In a video shared by BCCI on 'X', Rawal said, “I wanted to study it (psychology) and when I started studying it, I was very keen to understand how we manage things mentally on and off the field. This has also helped me a lot in cricket. When I am on the field before the match, I say a lot of positive things to myself.”
Pratika's father is an umpire
Pratika Rawal's father Pradeep Rawal is a BCCI-certified Level-II umpire for the Delhi & District Cricket Association (DDCA) and her cricket journey started at the age of 10 under the guidance of coach Shravan Kumar at the Rohtak Road Gymkhana Cricket Academy. She also took further training from former cricketer Deepti Dhyani and Delhi women's team coach Dishank Yagnik.
Pratika's record in domestic cricket
Pratika played for Delhi from 2021 to early 2024 and later that year she moved to Railways and participated in the Senior Women's ODI Trophy and Senior Women's T20 Trophy. In the 2021–22 Senior Women's ODI Trophy, she made her List A debut for Delhi against Jharkhand on 31 October. She scored an unbeaten 161 off 155 balls against Assam. In the entire season, she scored 247 runs in seven matches at an average of 49.40 and a strike rate of 78.41.
In the 2021–22 Senior Women's T20 Trophy, she made her T20 debut for Delhi against Railways on 21 April. In the 2023–24 Senior Women's ODI Trophy, Pratika continued her impressive performance, scoring 411 runs in 8 matches at an average of 68.50 and a strike rate of 91.94. She scored two centuries and registered a highest score of 141. She also participated in the Women's Delhi Premier League in 2024, playing for East Delhi Riders.
Pratika led Delhi to the final of the 2024 Under-23 T20 Trophy in 2024. As the second-highest run-scorer for her team, she scored 182 runs in nine matches at an average of 26 and a strike rate of 85.94. She then made her first-class debut for North Zone against East Zone in the 2023–24 Senior Women's Inter Zonal Multi-Day Trophy on April 3, 2024. In December 2024, she was included in the India women's cricket team for the first time in the ODI series against the West Indies.