Squadron Leader Squadron leader (Sqn Ldr in the RAF ; SQNLDR in the RAAF and RNZAF; formerly sometimes S/L in all services) is a commissioned rank in the Royal Air Force and the air forces of many countries which have historical British influence. It is also ...

(retired) Shikha Subas Pandey (born 12 May 1989) 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 and former officer in the

Indian Air Force The Indian Air Force (IAF) is the air arm of the Indian Armed Forces. Its complement of personnel and aircraft assets ranks third amongst the air forces of the world. Its primary mission is to secure Indian airspace and to conduct aerial w ...

(IAF). She plays for the national cricket team as a right-arm medium pacer and middle-order batter, and was an IAF

air traffic control Air traffic control (ATC) is a service provided by ground-based air traffic controllers who direct aircraft on the ground and through a given section of controlled airspace, and can provide advisory services to aircraft in non-controlled airs ...

officer. Pandey made her international Twenty20 (T20) debut on 9 March 2014 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 ...

at Cox's Bazar cricket stadium in

. In August of the same year, she made her

One Day International cricket A One Day International (ODI) is a form of limited overs cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of over (cricket), overs, currently 50, with the game lasting up to 9 hours. The Cr ...

(ODI) and

Test cricket Test cricket is a form of first-class cricket played at international level between teams representing full member countries of the International Cricket Council (ICC). A match consists of four innings (two per team) and is scheduled to last fo ...

debuts against

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 ...

Wormsley Wormsley is a private estate of Mark Getty and his family, set in of rolling countryside in the Chiltern Hills of Buckinghamshire (formerly Oxfordshire), England. It is also the home of Garsington Opera. Acquired by John Paul Getty, Jr., Sir Paul ...

and

Scarborough Scarborough or Scarboro may refer to: People * Scarborough (surname) * Earl of Scarbrough Places Australia * Scarborough, Western Australia, suburb of Perth * Scarborough, New South Wales, suburb of Wollongong * Scarborough, Queensland, su ...

, respectively.

Early life

Pandey did her schooling under the

Central Board of Secondary Education The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) is a national level board of education in India for public and private schools, controlled and managed by the Government of India. Established in 1929 by a resolution of the government, the Board ...

, India. At the age of 15, she became the first player affiliated with state board to represent

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. Within months of this affiliation and getting introduced into the formal set-up, Surekha Bhandare, former Mumbai player and selector, saw her playing and believed that Pandey had all the markings of a future India player. ''"The raw talent in her was hard to go unnotice,"'' Bhandare was quoted stating. In the class-ten board (secondary school) exams, she won the state-wide third rank. It was then that she decided to focus more on studies and cricket took a back seat for the next three years. It was not before her second year as an undergraduate in Electronics and Electrical Engineering that she began pursuing the sport with serious intent. Academics has always been important to Pandey and had to juggle cricket and college, where she would spend her morning doing gym sessions and academic work, and her afternoons would include a 12 km journey to Mapusa so she could train under Nitin Vernekar, former Goa cricketer and Sports Authority of Goa coach. This phase was very crucial to her growth as a cricketer as being the only girl at the boy's facility facing U-16 and U-19 boys honed her reaction time against

pace bowling Fast bowling (also referred to as pace bowling) is one of two main approaches to bowling in the sport of cricket, the other being spin bowling. Practitioners of pace bowling are usually known as ''fast'' bowlers, ''quicks'', or ''pacemen''. T ...

. However, she did not let her focus on game affect her academic performance. She particularly credits Ujwala Phadte, her lecturer in Applied Mathematics for helping her throughout this phase and making sure her grades were not inversely proportional to her on-field performance. After completing her engineering degree from

Goa College of Engineering Goa Engineering College or Goa College of Engineering (abbreviated and colloquially referred to as GEC) is a public college in Goa, India, offering courses in engineering disciplines and affiliated to Goa University. Founded in 1967 and situated ...

in 2010, three multinational companies offered her opportunities, but she declined all these placement offers and decided to take a year off and focus on her cricketing career completely. In July 2011, she joined

, and in June 2012 was commissioned as an

air traffic controller Air traffic control specialists, abbreviated ATCS, are personnel responsible for the safe, orderly, and expeditious flow of air traffic in the global air traffic control system. Usually stationed in air traffic control centers and control ...

. At the time of 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 ...

, she held the rank of Squadron Leader.

Cricket career

At the age of 15, Pandey was selected to play for

Goa Goa () is a state on the southwestern coast of India within the Konkan region, geographically separated from the Deccan highlands by the Western Ghats. It is located between the Indian states of Maharashtra to the north and Karnataka to the ...

in 2004. Later at the age of 17 for the 2007–08 domestic season, she was selected to play for Goa's Women Senior State Side. In the inter-state two-day tournament, Rani Jhansi Trophy, she picked up a four-wicket haul. This was also her Goa senior women's debut. Thirushi Kamini, then already an Indian international, was her first wicket which was a caught-and-bowled. What fast-tracked her selection into the zonal squad the same season was her scoring three half-centuries for the Goa Under-19 side. In her year off from her engineering course and Pandey played in Board President's XI against the visiting

and

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 ...

teams in 2010 and January 2011 respectively and also took her first "international wicket, albeit unofficial," Charlotte Edwards in the 2010 tour game. She continued to play for Goa and after 2013–14 season of Inter-State T20 tournament (Plate group) she was selected for India's tour of

consisting 3 friendly matches with

and

2014 ICC Women's World Twenty20 The 2014 ICC Women's World Twenty20 was the fourth ICC Women's World Twenty20 competition, taking place in Bangladesh from 23 March to 6 April 2014. The tournament was played in the cities of Sylhet and Dhaka – Cox's Bazar was originally inten ...

. After

Dilip Sardesai Dilip Narayan Sardesai (; 8 August 1940 – 2 July 2007) was an Indian international cricketer. He played Tests for the Indian national team as a batsman, the first Goa-born cricketer to play for India, and was often regarded as one of India' ...

, Pandey is the first player from

to play for any Indian national team. She is also the first Goa Cricket Association affiliated cricketer to play international level cricket for India. After the T20 World Cup, she played one-off Test match and 2 ODI matches against England. She was instrumental in India's win 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 ...

on 26 November 2014. She took 3 wickets and scored 59 runs. Pandey 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

by nine runs.England v India: Women's World Cup final – live!
''The Guardian'', 23 July 2017. In January 2020, she was named in India's squad for the

in Australia. 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 ...

Personal life

Pandey's

nickname A nickname is a substitute for the proper name of a familiar person, place or thing. Commonly used to express affection, a form of endearment, and sometimes amusement, it can also be used to express defamation of character. As a concept, it is ...

is "Shikhipedia", an allusion to her self-confessed status as a "cricket geek".

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pandey, Shikha 1989 births Living people Air traffic controllers Cricketers from Goa Goa women cricketers Goa cricketers Indian women cricketers India women Test cricketers India women One Day International cricketers India women Twenty20 International cricketers Indian Air Force personnel People from Karimnagar IPL Trailblazers cricketers IPL Velocity cricketers Delhi Capitals (WPL) cricketers

Early life

Cricket career

Personal life

References

Further reading

External links