Twenty-nine-year-old Renuka Singh Thakur’s tyrst with cricket started when she was just 7. She would follow her brother, Vinod, to the Parsa village ground near the Kundi nullah around a km walk from their house in Rohru of Himachal Pradesh where he played ball with the neighbourhood boys till late evening.

Fast forward 22 years, Renuka was among the 15-member Indian Women cricket squad to have created history by lifting the World Cup trophy for the first time on Sunday.

“I lost my husband Kehar Singh Thakur when Renuka was just three. But even then, he knew that Renuka loved playing cricket. My husband was so fond of the game that he named our son Vinod, after former Indian cricketer Vinod Kambli. While growing up, Renuka would play village-level matches and place every trophy she won in front of his photo. She even has a tattoo of her father on her arm. She would often say that she wants to play for team India one day. He would have been a very proud today,” says Sunita Thakur, who always taught her children to never feel lesser than anybody.

Back in 2009, it was Renuka’s uncle Bhupinder Singh Thakur, a physical education teacher, who insisted on sending her for trials for the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Academy at Dharamshala.

Academy coach Pawan Sen remembers the day when a young Renuka came to the academy. “She was very fit and strong and she would often say that it all came from training and running in the hills. She had a natural talent for swing but we understood that she had to add more strength in the coming years as she would need the pace at the senior level. We then focused on strength and fitness sessions with coach Veena Pandey. Then we shifted the focus on spot bowling to get her to control the inswing. Her action was smooth and I just adjusted it a little in terms of high arm release. One advantage we had was the pitches at Dharamshala were a bit bouncy so she also practiced for bouncers. We also worked on her leg cutters as well as slower ones,” says Sen.

It was Thakur’s 21 wickets in the BCCI Women’s One day Tournament in 2019 followed by a spot in the India A Women’s team to Australia in 2021 and nine wickets in BCCI Women’s One day Tournament in 2021, which saw her landing her maiden international cap against Australia during India’s tour to the country in 2021. Himachal Pradesh would pick 11 wickets during India’s silver medal winning campaign in 2022 Commonwealth Games, including two four-wicket hauls with one coming against eventual champions Australia in the Group A match. In the same year, Renuka took 18 wickets in ODIs for India and would be one of the lead pacers for India across formats.

Sen also recalls the time when he would make Renuka watch the videos of Indian pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar. “There was a match in the BCCI One Day Trophy at Cuttack, where Renuka had a threatening spell with her yorkers. She had the pace and inswing too. We worked on the follow through in her run up for the inswing and outswing and would make her watch the videos of Bhuvneshwar Kumar to observe the smooth follow through,” Sen says.

Sen believes that having the senior pacer in the team for the semi-final as well final of the World Cup helped the team. “Though Renuka’s speed had slowed down a bit post her injury last year, she worked on her strength in the recent months. She had a lot of success against Australia batters in the 2022 CWG games and would certainly have talked about that bowling with Kranti Gaud and Amanjot Kaur,” he says.

At Parsa, Vinod, a pump operator with Himachal Pradesh Irrigation and Public Health department, is planning to call all of his cricketing friends and celebrate the win at the ground near the nullah, which is now used as a parking ground. “We wish to have a stadium at our village and also hope that Renuka will be given a Himachal Police DSP job which she has been desiring since long after the CWG silver medal,” he says.

Meanwhile Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu Monday announced a prize money of Rs 1 crore to Renuka Thakur. “You have made Himachal Pradesh proud. We have announced a cash reward of rs one crore. As a daughter of Himachal Pradesh, we have thought to award you, and our best wishes for you for winning the World Cup. And we will see towards providing the job to you. Many wishes once again,” Sukhu said in a video message.