For the first time, an Indian woman cricketer has made it to both the International Cricket Council’s One Day and Twenty20 Teams of the Year.
Left-arm spinner Ekta Bisht, who had made it to the limelight for her exceptional bowling and wicket-claiming prowess, will be joining Mithali Raj, captain of Indian women’s cricket team in the T20 team and all-rounder Harmanpreet Kaur in the ODI team.
The decision was passed by the ICC panel on Thursday after taking the player’s performances into account from 21 September 2016 to date.
A native of Uttarakhand, Ekta had clinched 34 wickets in 19 matches and 11 wickets in seven T20s during the consideration period and has a ranking of 14th and 12th in ODIs and T20s, respectively.
The 31-year-old ace cricketer had first made her foray into the women’s national cricket team in 2011, with an ODI debut against Australia on 2 July 2011.
Her moment of fame emerged during a match against Pakistan in February when Ekta claimed five wickets in just eight runs.
Her outstanding performance not only lent India an edge over its rivalling neighbour with a seven-wicket win but also smashed their batting line-up of 67 runs. Interestingly, seven of her ten overs were maiden.
Another mind-blowing highlight in Ekta’s career had been one of the league matches during the ICC World Cup 2017, where she had claimed five wickets in 18 runs during her 10-over spell against Pakistan, yet again.
Her destructive bowling also trashed the neighbouring team by a margin of 95 runs and a low score chase of 170 runs.
One can also take into account Ekta’s stupendous performance in the match between India and Sri Lanka during the ICC Women T20 World Cup in in 2012. India went on to win the match, thanks to a game-changing hat-trick by Ekta in the last over that restricted the opponents to 100 runs for eight wickets.