Theertha Satish (born 16 April 2004) is an Indian-born cricketer who plays for the

United Arab Emirates national cricket team The United Arab Emirates national cricket team ( ar, فريق الإمارات الوطني للكريكيت) is the team that represents the United Arab Emirates in international cricket. They are governed by the Emirates Cricket Board (ECB) w ...

as a left-handed top order batter and

wicket-keeper The wicket-keeper in the sport of cricket is the player on the fielding side who stands behind the wicket or stumps being watchful of the batsman and ready to take a catch, stump the batsman out and run out a batsman when occasion arises. Th ...

Early life

Satish was born in

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

, India, and has lived in

Dubai Dubai (, ; ar, دبي, translit=Dubayy, , ) is the most populous city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the capital of the Emirate of Dubai, the most populated of the 7 emirates of the United Arab Emirates.The Government and Politics of ...

since she was a young child. Her mother, Rathna, is an architect, and her father, Satish Selanambi, is a finance professional. In about 2019, Satish started playing cricket after watching '' Kanaa'' (), a

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia ** Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nati ...

-language

sports drama A sports film is a film genre in which any particular sport plays a prominent role in the film's plot or acts as its central theme. It is a production in which a sport, sporting event, athlete (and their sport), or follower of sport (and the spor ...

movie, in which the leading character tries out cricket to please her father, a farmer, and ends up taking the field for

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 ...

in a

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

. Previously, Satish had long enjoyed watching the game. Both of Satish's parents have been fully supportive of her involvement in cricket. She and her father watch the game on television together. She, in turn, is a supporter of

Chennai Super Kings Chennai Super Kings (CSK) is an Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise cricket team based in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. Founded in 2008, the team plays its home matches at the M. A. Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. The team is owned by India ...

, and especially

Ruturaj Gaikwad Ruturaj Dashrat Gaikwad (born 31 January 1997) is an Indian international cricketer who plays for Maharashtra in domestic cricket and for the Chennai Super Kings in the Indian Premier League (IPL). He made his international debut for the Indi ...

, one of CSK's top order batters.

International career

In November 2021, Satish was named in UAE's WT20I squad for the

2021 ICC Women's T20 World Cup Asia Qualifier The 2021 ICC Women's T20 World Cup Asia Qualifier was a cricket tournament that took place in the United Arab Emirates in November 2021. The matches were played with Women's Twenty20 International (WT20I) status, with the top team progressing to ...

which was held in Dubai. On 22 November 2021, she made her

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) debut for the UAE against

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

in the first match of that tournament. She top scored with 46 runs in 48 balls, and was awarded

player of the match In team sport, a player of the match or man of the match or woman of the match award is often given to the most outstanding player in a particular match. This can be a player from either team, although the player is generally chosen from the winn ...

, which the UAE won by 30 runs. Later in the tournament, from which the UAE emerged as the overall victor, Satish twice again top scored, with 64 * in 53 balls against

Bhutan Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is situated in the Eastern Himalayas, between China in the north and India in the south. A mountainous ...

, and 47 in 46 balls against

Nepal Nepal (; ne, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne, सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mai ...

. In the match against Bhutan, she also shared with

Chamani Seneviratna Chamani Roshini Seneviratne (born 14 November 1978) is a Sri Lankan cricketer who currently plays for the United Arab Emirates as a right-arm medium bowler and right-handed batter. She previously played internationally for Sri Lanka between 1 ...

in a second wicket partnership of 131. She finished the tournament with the highest aggregate and average of any player, at 165 and 41.25, respectively. In March 2022, Satish was selected in the UAE team for the

2022 GCC Women's Gulf Cup The 2022 GCC Women's Gulf Cup was a women's T20I cricket (WT20I) tournament played in Oman from 20 to 26 March 2022. Organised by the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), the tournament featured the women's national teams of Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait, Q ...

Muscat Muscat ( ar, مَسْقَط, ) is the capital and most populated city in Oman Oman ( ; ar, عُمَان ' ), officially the Sultanate of Oman ( ar, سلْطنةُ عُمان ), is an Arabian country located in southwestern Asia. It is s ...

, Oman. In that tournament, her highest score was 41 in 23 balls against Oman. The following month, she again turned out for the UAE, in a 4-match bilateral series against

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

at the Malek Cricket Ground in

Ajman Ajman ( ar, عجمان, '; Gulf Arabic: عيمان ʿymān) is the capital of the emirate of Ajman in the United Arab Emirates. It is the fifth-largest city in UAE after Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah and Al Ain. Located along the Persian Gulf, it is ...

. In the first match of that series, she shared with Kavisha Kumari in a partnership of 83 for the second wicket. Her top score in the series was 47 in 34 balls in the second match. In November 2022, she scored 107* in 57 balls in an Under-19 Women's T20I match against United States of America, after scoring 70 in 56 balls in the previous match of the bilateral series.

Domestic career

In May 2022, Satish was recruited to play in the privately-run

2022 FairBreak Invitational T20 The 2022 FairBreak Invitational T20 was a women's Twenty20 cricket competition, which took place from 4 to 15 May 2022 in Dubai. The tournament, sanctioned by the ICC, was privately-run by FairBreak Global, a company that aims to promote gende ...

in Dubai. She was allocated to the Falcons team. In October 2022, she played for UAE in Women's Twenty20 Asia Cup.

Playing style

Satish has been described as "... an audacious batter, who judges length very quickly, is dangerous on the leg side, and is unafraid to hit against the spin or clear the infield."

References

External links