Happy Birthday to Ekta Bisht – The Outstanding Bowler

Ekta Bisht is a member of the Indian National Women’s Cricket Team. She is the first cricketer from India to take a hat-trick in a women’s T20 match. Let us wish her a very happy birthday.

Ekta Bisht was born on 8 February 1986 in Almora, Uttar Pradesh (now in Uttarakhand). Her parents are Kundan Singh Bisht and Tara Bisht. Her father is retired from the Indian Army. Ekta began to play cricket at the age of six. She used to play with boys and this attracted a lot of attention as she was the only girl in a team of all boys. Her father received only a small amount of pension from the government, so he opened a tea stall to fend for his family and take care of his daughter’s sports career expenses.

Ekta Bisht became the captain of the Uttarakhand Cricket Team in 2006. She was selected for the Indian National Women’s Cricket team in 2011. She made her WODI debut on 2 July 2011 against Australia.

It was on 3 October 2012 when Ekta Bisht took a hat-trick in the ICC World Women’s T20 match against Sri Lanka. India had restricted Sri Lanka to 100 runs for 8 wickets in that match after Ekta had made her hat-trick. Ekta Bisht was part of the Indian team to reach the final of the 2017 Women’s Cricket World Cup.

During the 2017 Women’s Cricket World Cup, Ekta Bisht claimed 5 wickets in 18 runs against Pakistan. As of November 2018, she has had 79 ODI wickets and 50 T20I wickets averaging 21.98 and 14.50 respectively. In 2017, Ekta Bisht was also the joint second-highest wicket-taker in ODI at an average of 17.27 with 29 wickets in 16 matches.

-Poorna Krishnan