Shweta Sehrawat: From playing with boys as a kid to Under-19 World Cup cricket star | Cricket News

Shweta Sehrawat helped her school win the inter-regional volleyball championship
NEW DELHI: Sanjay and Seema Sehrawat from South Delhi with two daughters and a son. Girls play sports early but boys are not interested. Years later the eldest daughter Swati Quitting cricket to focus on studying, Shweta is now one step away from becoming a U-19 World Cup champion. She is the batting star of the team that will clash with England in Sunday’s final.
For years, Sanjay tried to tell friends that his daughter was good at cricket but no one bothered. The couple go to every game their daughter plays. As Shweta continued to help India qualify for the inaugural final of the Under-19 World Cup over the past two weeks, Sanjay started receiving calls from his colleagues.

“Arey yaar teri beti toh bahut achcha khelti hai. (My friend, your daughter is a good player),” they told Sanjay. “Now these people have realized that Shweta really plays cricket,” laughed Sanjay.
Shweta determined to stay away from this beginner’s attention until she’s done work for her team against England. “Almost all of the girls on her team have given interviews on some platform. She told me she would only interview after the World Cup is over. We just spoke with her via text messages for the past few days,” Sanjay said. TOI on Saturday.

This is an exciting time in women’s cricket. It is slowly becoming a viable career option. Shweta has been involved in sports since before her teenage years. Her father took her to the academy where his eldest daughter trained as a pitcher. “Shweta showed her talent when she played tennis with boys when she was 8 years old. The coach at the academy was so impressed that he asked her to practice with the ball. leather ball,” Sanjay said.
“She is good at many sports. She single-handedly helped the school win the inter-regional volleyball championship. She is good at badminton and also knows how to skate a bit,” added the proud father.

Shweta’s interest in cricket peaked when she watched the T20 Women’s World Cup match between India and Pakistan at Ferozeshah Kotla in 2016. “She insisted on watching that match. She became interested. came to this game from there.A year later, she watched Harmanpreet Kaur scored 171 goals against Australia in the World Cup semi-final. At that time she was hooked on cricket and watched all the matches on TV. She started stalking Harmanpreet, Smriti Mandhana and Virat kohli“Sanjay said.
Shweta’s journey took another turn when she took over the current India Under-19 captaincy and founded the Haryana team of international star Shafali Verma in U-16 cricket. “Shweta was an all-round bowler. She scored the winning goal in half a century of batting in 7th place and winning the match for Delhi. Then she was promoted,” recalls Sanjay. again.

Shweta’s sister gave up cricket because she chose to study science after passing class X. But Sanjay and Seema let Shweta, who is studying at Modern School, decide what she wants to do. “Our only condition is that she completes her high school education. She attends the humanities department after class X. We believe she will become a cricketer. I saw her break her bat after a few days because she would hit the ball very hard in her teens,” Sanjay said.
The father did not let his daughter down. “Shweta chose the arts to focus on cricket but she told us she wanted to complete her graduation. That’s why she wrote to the NCA that she will not be able to attend the U camp. -19 in May-June because she has board exam. First NCA VVS Laxman make an exception for her and ask her to join later. She was one of only two centurions in that tournament in Anantapur,” he said.

Sanjay says he did not give Shweta any advice. “She did it all by herself. I’m just a proud father,” he said.
No matter what happened on Sunday, Shweta made her parents proud and lived her sister’s dream.