Who is Renuka Singh - adding pace to women's cricket in India

The return of cricket to the Commonwealth Games at Birmingham 2022 was one of the highlights of the quadrennial multi-sport event and the Indian women's cricket team made its mark by winning the silver medal.

One of the key players behind India's podium finish in the women’s T20 tournament in Birmingham was pacer Renuka Singh Thakur.

When India faced five-time T20 world champions Australia in the opener at CWG 2022 at the Edgbaston Cricket Stadium, a young Renuka Singh reduced the chasing Aussies to 34/4 in the fifth over.

Renuka Singh had taken all four wickets, including that of Alyssa Healy, Beth Mooney, captain Meg Lanning and Tahlia McGrath.

The Aussie top-four had collectively played in over 300 T20 International matches. Renuka Singh was only playing the seventh T20 match of her career.

A right-arm pacer, Renuka Singh finished the Commonwealth Games 2022 as the highest wicket-taker of the tournament with 11 scalps in five games at an economy of 5.47.

She claimed two four-wicket hauls, 4/18 against Australia in the opener and 4/10 against Barbados, and had an average of 9.45. Renuka's vicious in-swinging yorkers became the talk of the town.

After the Commonwealth Games, silver-medallist Renuka jumped 10 places to her career-best 18th spot in the ICC Women's T20 Player Rankings for bowlers on the back of her stellar campaign.

How Renuka Singh got into cricket

Renuka Singh Thakur was born on February 1, 1996, in Shimla, Himachal Pradesh. She flaunts a tattoo of a father playing with his daughter on her bowing arm. She inked it in the memory of her father, Kehar Singh Thakur, who died in 1999. He used to work in the Himachal Pradesh irrigation and public health department in Rohru. Her success on the cricket field is a reflection of her father’s dream.

Kehar Singh was a cricket fan. His elder son, Vinod, is named after the former Indian cricketer Vinod Kambli.

Renuka's mother, Sunita, had to join her husband's job as a Class IV employee in 2000, while the siblings picked up cricket. They would play in village tournaments where, at times, Renuka would be the only girl appearing in both morning and evening matches. Sunita could not afford the cricket expenses for two, so Vinod had to give up the sport.

“When she started playing cricket, she would always pick up whatever was available like wooden sticks or plastic bats from home or neighbourhood to play with the boys,” Renuka’s mother Sunita told the Indian Express. “Sometimes, she would return home crying that she did not get her turn to bat or bowl.

“But as she performed well in the village tournaments, teams came to pick her up along with a new bat or ball and she would always return with a trophy. She still keeps her trophies in a small cabinet at our home,” Sunita added.

Renuka's career got a boost once she joined the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association's residential academy for girls in 2009. She was naturally fit as she came from a hilly terrain, and the coaches at the academy made her run cross-country to build stamina.

At the academy, Renuka Singh trained under coach Pawan Sen and strength and conditioning coach Veena Pandey.

Renuka gained pace and control over her line and length during her stint at the academy. Besides the in-swing and yorkers, she also mastered the art of bowling leg-cutters.

Renuka Singh took a hat-trick in a U-19 match against Karnataka in 2016 and emerged the leading wicket-taker in the BCCI Women’s One-Day tournament in 2019 with 23 wickets.

Road to CWG silver medal

Renuka Singh landed a job at the Railways. She earned her T20I debut in Australia in 2021 on the back of nine wickets in five games in the Senior One Day Trophy that fast-tracked her career.

The promising pacer got the chance to be under the wings of veteran pacer Jhulan Goswami while on a tour of New Zealand in February 2020. Renuka Singh was picked for the ODI World Cup in 2022 but did not get a game.

Later in the year, Renuka toughened up during the two 10-day camps, on either side of the Sri Lanka series, to prepare for the Commonwealth Games. Fast bowlers were coached in groups by a dedicated trainer. The bowling speed and spells were monitored at the camp. The dietician followed a chart and counted every calorie. The video analysis of every session helped Renuka understand her game better.

The seamer proved her worth in the tour of Sri Lanka when she picked up seven wickets (3/29 and 4/28) in the first two games to help India clinch the ODI series.

Following her exploits in Birmingham and a successful 2022, where she rose to the No. 3 spot in the ICC T20I bowlers' rankings in November, Renuka Singh won the coveted ICC Emerging Women's Cricketer of the Year award.

In 2023, Royal Challengers Bangalore paid INR 1.5 crores to enlist the services of Renuka Singh for the inaugural Women's Premier League (WPL), making her the highest-priced specialist Indian bowler in WPL 2023. The following year, Renuka was part of the RCB team which won the WPL 2024 title.

Shortly after, she managed to pick her maiden five-wicket haul in T20 international cricket. Playing against England at Gqeberha during the T20 Women’s World Cup 2023 in South Africa, Renuka Singh recorded figures of 5/15 in her four overs. Her haul included the veteran Danielle Wyatt for a first-ball duck.

Renuka Singh, thus, became the first Indian -- male or female -- to register a five-wicket haul in the history of the T20 World Cup.

Renuka Thakur also made her Test debut against England in December 2023.

Renuka Singh cricketing achievements

• Commonwealth Games 2022 silver medallist
• Commonwealth Games 2022 highest wicket-taker
• ICC Emerging Women's Cricketer of the Year 2022
• First Indian to take a five-wicket haul in T20 World Cup
• Highest-priced specialist Indian bowler in WPL 2023 auction