Jemimah Rodrigues, Who Has Played 107 Matches For India, Was Once Predicted To Represent Country In Hockey By Former Olympian

It is a well-known fact that the Indian Women’s batter Jemimah Rodrigues is proficient at both cricket and hockey. Although she has already played 107 cricket matches across formats for India, former Olympian Joaquim Carvalho once predicted Rodrigues to represent the country in hockey as well.

Rodrigues, who chose to pursue cricket as a profession out of the two sports, disclosed the reason behind the same during her appearance on popular YouTuber Gaurav Kapur’s show titled Breakfast with Champions earlier this year. Much like Carvalho, even she expressed a desire to play both cricket and hockey at the highest level.

“Hockey and Cricket happened simultaneously. Actually, I was selected to play hockey for Maharashtra before playing cricket for Mumbai. I was very good at hockey, too. After that, it come to a point where both of the games were clashing. I decided to play cricket after consulting my dad. The dream is to still play both cricket and hockey for the country.”

Jemimah Rodrigues Can Represent India In Hockey According To Former Olympian

Just seven-year old, Rodrigues was selected to represent Maharashtra at the U-17 level in hockey. She frequently represented her school at the MSSA (Mumbai Sports School Association), an inter-school hockey league. Rodrigues still shares some videos of her playing the game.

Joaquim Carvalho, who has both led and coached the Indian Men’s hockey team in the past, knows Rodrigues since his childhood and was close to her father Ivan Rodrigues as well. Carvalho once revealed how he told Ivan to let Jemimah continue with Hockey. In spite of knowing her inclination towards cricket, he was still confident about her skills with a stick in hand.

“I’ve known Jemimah since she was 10. She used to come to the St Stanislaus ground [Bandra] with her brothers. I had told her father then that she’d play for India one day. She chose cricket, but I’m sure she can also play for the Indian women’s hockey team given her skills,” Carvalho had said as quoted by Sportzpoint.com.

Jemimah Rodrigues Had Participated In A Local Hockey Tournament In 2022

Left out of the Indian Women’s squad for ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2022, Jemimah registered herself to take part in Willingdon Catholic Gymkhana Rink Tournament in Mumbai to surprise one and all.

Representing Uncle’s Kitchen United team, she scored a hat-trick in one of her team’s victories during the five-a-side tournament. Adrian D’Souza, coach of the team, was pretty impressed with her fitness and agility on the pitch. Viral photos from the competition had even managed to initiate speculations of an impending professional career in hockey.

While the same is yet to happen, a World Cup omission motivated Rodrigues to perform well in the future. Even though an injury setback forced her to miss the tour of England last year, she was back in the fray for the subsequent Asia Cup. Highest run-scorer in the intercontinental tourney on the back of scoring 217 runs at an average of 54.25, she has cemented her place in the Indian team since then.

Making her comeback in the Indian ODI squad after a couple of years during the Bangladesh tour held last month, the 22-year old player delivered a career-best all-round performance in the second Mirpur ODI scoring 86 (78) before picking bowling figures of 3.1-0-3-4.

Speaking of the inaugural season of the Women’s Premier League earlier this year, Delhi Capitals Women bought her for INR 2.2 crore in the auction. Having said that, the tournament wasn’t that great for her as she scored 126 runs at an average of 25.20 across even innings.