Asian Games: Meet Shikha Yadav, the feisty captain leading rugby hopes

Shikha Yadav, the 27-year-old captain of India’s women’s rugby team, comes across as a feisty character unwilling to give in without a fight. She wants that quality to rub off on the squad as they look to improve on their seventh-place finish in 2023 at the ongoing Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya.

A 13-member squad, announced by the Rugby Federation of India (RFI) on Monday after a camp at the Sports Authority of India (SAI) in Kolkata, will take part in the Rugby Sevens competition at the Games from October 1-3. The women’s team has made the cut as the eighth-ranked outfit in the continent in an eight-team field and has been drawn in Pool B alongside defending champions China, Hong Kong China and Malaysia. The other four teams in Pool A are Japan, Thailand, Kazakhstan and Singapore.

“This time, we have six players, including myself, who were part of the squad in Hangzhou. It helps us in terms of experience, while we are now familiar with teams like China, Hong Kong China and Malaysia as we keep playing them in the Asia Rugby Emirates Sevens Series throughout the year. This gives us a realistic chance to beat at least two of the three teams in the group,” remarked Shikha, who made her international debut in 2019.

Dumuni Marndi, Shikha’s deputy, Sandhya Rai, Mama Naik, Kalyani Patil and Vashnavi Patil are the other five members, apart from Shikha, returning to the squad for their second Games. Speaking to National Herald, Shikha said their sport has gained some momentum in the country over the last couple of years and that her team needs to build on it with a possible “top-four or five” finish in the tournament.

‘’I feel that our gap with other major rugby playing countries in Asia are narrowing. When I started playing in 2019, there was only one tournament in a year but now there are two while Rahul Bose, the Rugby India president, has now introduced the Rugby Premier League (RPL) for women from this year.

 ‘’This means we are getting game time throughout the year with the Nationals, Ashmita League, RPL and of course the Asia series. We are among the top eight Asian countries and figure off and on in social media. It’s now our job to seize the moment and come up with a strong performance in Japan,’’ says Shikha, who represents Delhi Reds in the RPL.

Beneath the fun-loving exterior of Shikha lies a fierce competitor and thinking brain as captain. Asked how challenging is the job of captaincy on the go in a fast and furious format like the Sevens where fortunes can change with the batting of an eyelid, she had her reply ready:  ‘’If you are a good leader, you will also make good leaders. It’s not necessary that captain will always have to speak and it’s the team effort which decides matches in the end.’’

The squad, along with captain Shikha, bank on the ‘Delport factor’ a lot to extend their stay in the tournament. South African Paul Delport, a former Sevens star and head coach of his national women’s team, is tipped to bring in an impact like Sjoerd Marijne with the women’s hockey team in terms of injecting self belief – so necessary for the so called underdogs.

‘’I feel we could not have got a better coach than him. I have not seen anybody trying to infuse the can-do attitude among us while he also believes in continuity and not chopping and changing after a single bad result.  He also gives honest feedback to the players irrespective of their seniority,’’ she added.