Bowling to Alyssa Healy is a daunting task for any bowler, let alone for a 16-year-old. Playing only her third WPL match, Andhra’s Shabnam Shakil faced the terrifying prospect in the UP Warriorz vs Gujarat Giants fixture on Monday at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, New Delhi, that too with the new ball in the powerplay. After warming the bench for the whole of WPL 2023, Shakil had to wait for four more matches this year to make her debut. Coming in as the 4th and 5th change bowler, she had leaked runs at over 9 runs per over in both her previous games – against RCB and MI. Yet, the Gujarat Giants team management had enough faith in the youngster to hand her the new ball – probably knowing that their season was over, they wanted to test the waters for the next.
GG got what they wanted. Off her third delivery, Shakil had Healy walking back – caught at mid-off. Off the final delivery of the first over, Chamari Athapaththu had also fallen to a slice towards extra cover. Both out-swingers.
When Healy and Athapaththu made their debuts in 2009-10, Shakil would have been around two or three years old. And now the young upstart, who is yet to finish school, had dismissed two bonafide legends of the game in a span of four deliveries.
In her next two overs, Shakil gave away just two runs and in her final over she got the better of her U19 compatriot Shweta Sehrawat, rattling her off stump with an angled-in delivery. UP Warriorz were reduced to 35/5 in seven overs. Shakil had finished with figures 3/11. A job well done.
While Gujarat Giants revealed at the post-match press conference that their analyst had plans in place for Shakil, her long-time coach Nagaraju explained what made the pacer successful that evening.
“The main thing is how she was involved in the situation. In the first over, when she got two wickets, both were outgoing deliveries. The third one, that Sehrawat bowled, was an in-swinging delivery. She bowled in hard areas, and gave no chance to the batters,” Nagaraju told CricketNext.com after the match.
Shakil can clock upwards of 100 kph easily, which is an aspect to have for any bowling unit. Just Ask South Africa and MI about Shabnim Ismail! However, Nagarjuna adds Shakil’s biggest quality is reading batters throughout the game.
“She has those qualities from Under-16 days. Even while playing local tournaments, she would anticipate what she would bowl while fielding at fine leg. She thinks like that. She will understand the batter’s approach, calculate, and bowl in the right areas.”
Shakil had done her preparations well and it paid off when she got the opportunity. “During the off-season, she always bowls in match simulation most of the time. Most times, she would think, ‘if this is a situation, I want to achieve this’. But she still must work on some technical parts,” revealed the coach.
Apart from her skillset, one other thing that probably keeps Shakil in good stead is her attitude, which has impressed Giants Coach Michael Klinger.
“Firstly, she doesn’t stop smiling. So she is a pleasure to have around in the group,” Klinger said after Giants beat Warriorz. Nagarjuna concurred, narrating an interesting story about Shakil’s positive mindset and attitude.
“Recently I had to submit a case study on my athletes. So I talked about Shabnam in the case study. She is a very funny girl. Secondly, she remains very stable whether she wins or loses. She only thinks about her learnings and happiness from the game. ‘Today we lost the game, but at least I can bowl bouncers now.’ If anything goes wrong, she tries to find the solution instead of any negative thinking.”
While Shakil made a mark in the WPL, her journey is cut short as the Giants have failed to qualify for the playoffs. However, she will definitely keep smiling until she comes back stronger for next year’s WPL.