“She inspired me to bowl left-arm spin and I also learned a lot from her.” Saika Ishaque speaks about her role model, who inspired her to take up spin bowling.
Recently we had a look at the journey of 35-year-old veteran Indian left-arm spinner Gouher Sultana, who has been on a journey of self-discovery after falling out of the selector’s radar, having last played for India in 2014. Now we will dive deep into the journey of another upcoming left-arm spinner Saika Ishaque.
The 28-year-old left-arm spinner Saika Ishaque’s cricketing journey started by playing the game with the boys on the streets of Park Circus in Kolkata. Her love for the game was supported by her family who enrolled her into the boys academy to hone her skills in the game.
One would be quite surprised to know about her first love during her academy days. She used to prefer wicket-keeping and fast bowling, while bowling spin was never in her dictionary until her coach insisted her to try left-arm spin. She went on to meet another canny left-arm spinner Gouher Sultana who was amongst the best spinners to represent India during her time at the international level.
“When I played for the senior Bengal side, I saw Gouher Sultana bowl. She played so much for India. She inspired me as a kid and then I got to play with her. She’s from Hyderabad but she played for Bengal for a few years. She inspired me to bowl left-arm spin and I also learnt a lot from her. Since childhood, I’ve been following her.” Saika Ishaque speaks about her role model Gouher Sultana who inspired her to bowl left-arm spin.
She was picked up by Mumbai Indians for a base price of 10 Lakhs in the inaugural edition of the WPL. She impressed everyone on her WPL debut when she returned with exceptional match figures (3.1-11-4) in her spell in the tournament opener against the Gujarat Giants. She eventually ended the season as the 5th highest wicket-taker of the tournament with 15 wickets to her name at an average of 16.26 and a strike rate of 13.93 in 10 innings. She was one of the biggest finds of the inaugural edition of the Women’s Premier League.
“I tried to keep myself calm and tried to do the same things that had brought me to the WPL. I had been practicing for these kinds of days, so on match day also I tried to do the same thing. No need to do anything special.” Saika Ishaque speaks about keeping things simple to be successful against some of the best batters in the game.
Courtesy of her impressive outing with the ball for Mumbai Indians in the inaugural edition of the Women’s Premier League, she earned a call-up to the senior Indian women’s team. She eventually made her international debut on 6th December 2023 in the 1st T20I against England. She has picked up 5 wickets in 3 innings at an average of 16.20 in the T20I format so far.
She is having a quiet start to the 2nd edition of the Women’s Premier League as she went wicketless in her first couple of outings, returning with match figures (3-0-17-0) and (1-0-8-0) in the first couple of matches, in fact, she hasn’t completed her full quota of overs so far this season.
(Quotes sourced from Espncricinfo)