Poonam Yadav (born 24 August 1991) is an Indian

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

er who plays for the national women's cricket team as a

leg-spin Leg spin is a type of spin bowling in cricket. A leg spinner bowls right-arm with a wrist spin action. The leg spinner's normal delivery causes the ball to spin from right to left (from the bowler's perspective) when the ball bounces on the ...

bowler. She made her debut in International cricket on 5 April 2013 in a

Women's Twenty20 International Women's Twenty20 International (WT20I) is the shortest form of women's international cricket. A women's Twenty20 International is a 20 overs-per-side cricket match between two of the International Cricket Council (ICC) members. The first Twent ...

(WT20I) match against

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

. Yadav's debut in Test Series on 16 November 2014 against

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

and her ODI debut was on 12 April 2013 against

Early life

Yadav was born on 24 August 1991 in

Mainpuri Mainpuri is a city in Mainpuri district in the Indian States and territories of India, state of Uttar Pradesh. It is the administrative headquarters of Mainpuri district and is situated to the north-east of Agra and is 270 km from New Del ...

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 1950 ...

, India. Her father's name is Raghuveer Singh Yadav, who is a retired army officer. Her mother's name is Munna Devi and she is a homemaker. To pursue her career, Yadav had to shift to

Agra Agra (, ) is a city on the banks of the Yamuna river in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, about south-east of the national capital New Delhi and 330 km west of the state capital Lucknow. With a population of roughly 1.6 million, Agra is ...

from

. There she trained at the

Eklavya Sports Stadium Eklavya Sports Stadium is cricket stadium located in Agra, Uttar Pradesh state of India. The stadium is named after very famous student of India at the time of "Mahabharata", Eklavya. The ground has floodlights so that the stadium can host da ...

. Three years later, Yadav almost quit cricket but was motivated by her father to continue further.

International career

Yadav was part of the Indian team to reach the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...

of the

2017 Women's Cricket World Cup The 2017 Women's Cricket World Cup was an international women's cricket tournament that took place in England from 24 June to 23 July 2017. It was the eleventh edition of the Women's Cricket World Cup, and the third to be held in England (after ...

where the team lost to

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

by nine runs.England v India: Women's World Cup final – live!
''The Guardian'', 23 July 2017. In June 2018, she entered the top five of the women's T20I rankings and came in third on the list. In October 2018, she was named in India's squad for the

2018 ICC Women's World Twenty20 The 2018 ICC Women's World Twenty20 was the sixth edition of the ICC Women's World Twenty20, hosted in the West Indies from 9 to 24 November 2018. It the second World Twenty20 hosted by the West Indies (after the 2010 edition), and the West Ind ...

tournament in the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greater A ...

. Ahead of the tournament, she was named as one of the players to watch. She was the joint-leading wicket-taker for India in the tournament, with eight dismissals in five matches. She became India's highest wicket-taker in Twenty20 Internationals in September 2018 with 57 wickets from 39 T20Is. She went past Jhulan Goswami's tally of 56 in the first T20I against

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

. She is also the only front-line bowler who has been in every T20 match for India in 2018. In January 2020, she was named in India's squad for the

2020 ICC Women's T20 World Cup The 2020 ICC Women's T20 World Cup was the seventh ICC Women's T20 World Cup tournament. It was held in Australia between 21 February and 8 March 2020. The final took place at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on International Women's Day. Hosts Aus ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. India reached the

but lost to the hosts, with Yadav taking 1-30 (her solitary wicket being that of

Rachael Haynes Rachael Louise Haynes (born 26 December, 1986) is an Australian former international cricketer who has won six world championships as a member of the national women's team. A left-handed batter, Haynes was vice-captain of Australia from 2017 to ...

) and scoring 1 run before being last out to confirm

's victory. Her best bowling performance came in the opening game against the eventual champions

, where she wreaked havoc with figures of 4-0-19-4 In May 2021, she was named in India's

Test squad Test(s), testing, or TEST may refer to: * Test (assessment), an educational assessment intended to measure the respondents' knowledge or other abilities Arts and entertainment * ''Test'' (2013 film), an American film * ''Test'' (2014 film), ...

for their one-off match against the

England women's cricket team The England women's cricket team represents England and Wales in international women's cricket. Since 1998, they have been governed by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), having been previously governed by the Women's Cricket Association ...

. In January 2022, she was named in India's team for the

2022 Women's Cricket World Cup The 2022 ICC Women's Cricket World Cup was the twelfth edition of the Women's Cricket World Cup, which was held in New Zealand in March and April 2022. It was originally scheduled for 6 February to 7 March 2021 but was postponed by one year due ...

in New Zealand.

T20 Leagues

Poonam played for

Supernovas A supernova is a powerful and luminous explosion of a star. It has the plural form supernovae or supernovas, and is abbreviated SN or SNe. This transient astronomical event occurs during the last stellar evolution, evolutionary stages of a mass ...

in the

Women's T20 Challenge The Women's T20 Challenge was an Indian women's cricket Twenty20 tournament that was held between 2018 and 2022. The tournament featured three teams, playing a round-robin group followed by a final. IPL Supernovas were the most successful team ...

in 2019 and 2022. She played for

Brisbane Heat The Brisbane Heat are an Australian men's professional Twenty20 franchise cricket team that competes in the Big Bash League. The Heat wears a teal uniform and are based in Brisbane in the Australian state Queensland. Their home ground is the Br ...

in the 2021–22 Women's Big Bash League.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Yadav, Poonam 1991 births Living people Sportspeople from Agra India women Test cricketers India women One Day International cricketers India women Twenty20 International cricketers Cricketers from Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh women cricketers Central Zone women cricketers Railways women cricketers IPL Trailblazers cricketers IPL Supernovas cricketers Delhi Capitals (WPL) cricketers Brisbane Heat (WBBL) cricketers Recipients of the Arjuna Award