Making of Asha Sobhana: RCB player started journey by bowling rolled up balls of paper inside empty milk packets

When Asha Sobhana got the ball in the 17th over, she found the M Chinnaswamy Stadium atmosphere to be ‘electric’. It was the sort of ambience she had craved all her life.

Royal Challengers Bangalore skipper Smriti Mandhana only wanted Sobhana to get least one of Shweta Sehrwat and Grace Harris as UP Warriorz were in total control in pursuit of 158. With seven wickets in hand, they needed only 32 runs in the final four overs. This is supposed to be a stroll.

But this was Chinnaswamy Stadium. The chants of ‘RCB, RCB’ were deafening. Sobhana was even thinking about her parents, who had recharged their DTH connection only to watch her play. She didn’t want to let anyone down on the night.

Royal Challengers Bangalore’s Shobana Asha celebrates the wicket of UP Warriorz’s Grace Harris during a ‘Women’s Premier League (WPL) 2024’ cricket match. (PTI Photo)

India seamer Renuka Singh still had an over left. There was Georgia Wareham as well. But it was Sobhana that Smriti turned to. At 32, she had been around for years in domestic cricket.

Yet, there was still something unknown about her. When she was in Class VII and returned home one day at 7 pm after attending trials, Sobhana had found the house empty. Her parents had gone to file a missing complaint at the police station.

Since then, she had moved teams on the domestic circuit, starting her career with Kerala in 2007-08 season before moving to Railways and then to Pondicherry two seasons ago.

Her path to the Women’s Premier League was filled with ups and downs, like many other girls who have had to break barriers to get this far.

How Asha Sobhana’s journey started

Growing up in Thiruvananthapuram, she attended training sessions only because her coaches offered her bus fare. Sobhana started bowling by using rolled up balls of waste paper which she would put inside empty milk packets.

And on the domestic circuit, barring the 2022-23 season, she has been among the wickets regularly.

She wasn’t a certain starter in the inaugural edition last year. Yet, the RCB team management saw something in her. She picked up only five wickets in five matches, at an economy rate of over 8. But, when this edition came, it was evident they were going to put their faith in her.

After catching attention last year, Sobhana had gone back to work on her game. Former India spinner Laxman Sivaramakrishnan was so impressed with what he saw that he volunteered to coach her for free. And this January, she would spend three days with Sivaramakrishnan in Chennai. “She is a quick learner and has a strong personality. All that we had to do was make small technical adjustments, which would make her more effective,” Sivaramakrishnan tells The Indian Express.

It would begin with altering her action a bit, then concentrating on transfer of weight, finding the right balance and wrist position and ensuring she bowled at the right speed. “She had a more open-chested action, so we worked on making it a bit side-on. It allows you to have a better transfer of weight, from back leg to the front. Then there will be perfect synchronisation. When all these are in place, you will definitely become more effective,” adds Sivaramakrishnan.

With the tweaked action, Sobhana went about her business with her usual confidence. The one striking aspect that Sivaramakrishnan had noticed in her from day 1 was that she wasn’t afraid to flight the ball. Like all good leg-spinners, she was forcing batters to drive.

Off the second ball of the 17th over on Saturday, she got Sehrawat. Off the fourth, with Harris looking for big hits, she slowed it further as the ball hit the off-stump. And off the final ball with Kiran Navgire on strike, she gave enough air, drawing the batter forward to have her stumped. Three blows in one over and Warriorz never recovered.

“Our conversations have mostly been on giving more flight and drawing batters forward. When she does that, she will be effective. She is beginning to get more drift, but it’s taking the ball on the leg-stump and beyond. So she has to adjust her line and start it outside off, and the drift will take it to the middle- and-leg-stump line,” Sivaramakrishnan says.

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