Jasia Akhtar will be the first woman cricketer from Jammu and Kashmir to make it to the national camp.
An year ago, when Jammu and Kashmir’s Pervez Rasool made it to Team India– heads were turned. Perhaps, understandably so since, it isn’t always that we see a cricketer from the valley making it to the Indian contingent. But now, there’s some awesome news that’s put back the focus on Kashmir and its cricketing talent. Make way for Jasia Akhtar, another Kashmiri cricketer whose name is shining on the cricketing galaxy.
Living in a two-room house in a village in district Shopian in South Kashmir, the 27-year-old Jasia Akhtar was having a dull Sunday evening until a text message turned it into the happiest day of her life. It was the Punjab captain who informed the attacking J&K batsman that she had been selected for the Indian senior women’s month-long camp at the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore.
Jasia was informed of her selection into the team’s national coaching camp by the captain of Punjab, a side that the 27-year-old happens to represent at the domestic stage. In the days that led to the build up of this enormously exciting event for the young cricketer, Jasia confessed that her life in the Shopian district of South Kashmir was just about okay with nothing too exciting to look for.
Her aged father, Gul Mohammed Wani, is a small-time farmer who owns a tiny land where he grows apples and walnuts for a living. With meagre means, the 65-year-old Wani has not been able to reconstruct the four-room house and the family of seven lives in a two-room house.
Known for her strokeplay, Jaisia hogged the limelight in the recently concluded T20 Queens XI Cricket League organised by the Sehwag Cricket Academy in Gurgaon. She scored an unbeaten 44 for LIC Chandigarh XI against Sri Lanka XI in the final and helped her team win the title.
Jasia, who idolises Sachin Tendulkar and Harmanpreet Kaur, has been the top performer for Punjab in ODIs and T20s since 2013. She helped the J&K U-19 team win gold at the National School Games.
“When Pervez Rasool got selected for the India team, we had something to cheer about. There are very few occasions when Kashmiris celebrate. He had told me then, ‘behen abb aapki baari hai” (Sister now it is your turn)’,” said Jasia.
Jasia would look to make the most of the eminent opportunity to play alongside big names in Indian Women’s Cricket, such as: Harmanpreet Kaur, Mithali Raj, Jhulan Goswami and, the emerging Smriti Mandhana.
As, the month long camp starts on September 18.
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