There’s a joke in the India women’s dressing room that when the ball is in Poonam Yadav’s hand only the ball can be seen, not her palm.
But such is her wrist-work that she flummoxes the batters as frequently as she struggles to buy shoes for her little feet.
Even as she trained to bowl under lights with the dew, Poonam kept wondering whether she would get size-5 shoes.
The chirpy girl told The Hindu during India’s home series against South Africa last year that joggers were not much of a problem since she could wear “5.5 size with three pairs of socks”, but when it comes to spikes she cannot get anything even remotely close to her size in India.
“Alyssa Healy (Australia’s wicketkeeper-batter) gave me these spikes. When she was here for the women’s IPL (in Jaipur in May), she just walked up to me and asked what size I wear. Since we have the same size, she gave me a pair of spikes.”
As a result, she has been looking forward to the trip down under.
“I will return with not just the trophy but enough pairs of spikes to last for the next few years,” she had said.
