Women’s World Cup: Who is Kranti Goud, India’s pint-sized pace lynchpin?

The story of Kranti Goud, the pocket-sized 22-year-old pace bowler, is another example of the abundance of talent which India's cricketing ecosystem has been able to unearth in recent times. She picked up the big game against Pakistan in Colombo on Sunday to give it her all — returning with figures of 10-3-20-3 to emerge as Player of the Match — though bigger challenges await.

For all the pre-match hype of any India-Pakistan tie, the green shirts are one of the weakest batting sides in the eight-team tournament, and Kranti asked them hard questions by generating lively pace and an ability to move the ball off the seam both ways. However, the Women in Blue take on a battle-hardened South Africa on Thursday, and a lot rests on the youngster and Amanjot Kaur to provide the early breakthroughs in Guwahati.

It was festive time at her home village in remote Ghuwara of Bundelkhand district in Madhya Pradesh, where villagers set up a screen at the ground she used to play in as a kid to watch as Kranti took three crucial wickets (Sadaf Shamas, Aliya Riaz and Natalia Pervaiz) to derail Pakistan’s chase and set up India’s 88-run triumph. “When I came in for my second spell, the captain wanted to remove the slip because the ball was old. I insisted on keeping the slip as I had a feeling I could draw out a wicket. That’s exactly what happened. I had that faith,” she said.

The R. Premadasa Stadium in Colombo, the venue of Pakistan game, seemed to act as a lucky charm for him. It was at the same venue only five months back in May that Kranti made her international debut in the final of a tri-series against Sri Lanka and South Africa. She went wicketless but showed promise.

Five months down the line, she now has 18 ODI wickets in just nine games — which has earned her the faith of the think tank over more experienced players — and has shown courage with the bat to boot. All this, against quality opponents like England and Australia, and the World Cup is now her stage.

The early days for Kranti unfolded on a familiar note when, much to the displeasure of her neighbours and relatives, she grew up playing tennis-ball cricket with the boys. Once, she happened to be at a ground in Ghuwara where one of the teams was a player short. They asked her if she played cricket, she nodded, starred with both bat and ball, and straightaway won the Player-of-the-Match award.

Her athleticism impressed childhood coach Rajiv Bilthre, who was secretary of Chhatarpur District Cricket Association and coach of Sagar Division. While Kranti seemed nippy, Bilthre also saw she had power, and worked on her batting technique with an eye to making her a complete package in white-ball cricket. She worked on her fitness and honed her skills to become an allrounder and made her debut for Madhya Pradesh’s senior team in only 2023-24.

In 2024-25, Kranti was one of the central figures in MP’s first domestic one-day title. This paved the way for UP Warriorz zeroing in on her at the auction ahead of WPL 2025 for Rs 10 lakh. After a successful season, she went on to make her ODI debut in the tri-series featuring South Africa in Sri Lanka and her T20I debut on the tour of England.

The stunning ODI figures of six for 52 in Chester-le-Street on the England tour simply blew England away, and Kranti had certainly arrived. The journey is well begun and Kranti now needs to keep the good work going!