Kranti Gaud

It was only by chance that Kranti Gaud got into playing leather-ball cricket.

Much to the displeasure of her neighbours and relatives, Gaud grew up playing tennis-ball cricket with the boys. Once, she happened to be at a ground in Ghuwara, a town in Bundelkhand in Madhya Pradesh, where one of the teams was a player short. They asked her if she played cricket, she nodded, starred with both bat and ball and won the Player-of-the-Match award.

Gaud was agile, fast and athletic, qualities that impressed her childhood coach Rajiv Bilthre, who was the secretary of the Chhatarpur District Cricket Association and the coach of Sagar Division. She possessed speed that troubled batters. Bilthre also saw she had the power and worked on her batting technique and taught her the importance of hitting in the V. She worked on her fitness and honed her skills to become an allrounder, and made her debut for Madhya Pradesh's senior team in 2023-24.

In 2024-25, Gaud was one of the central figures in Madhya Pradesh's first domestic one-day title. She was then picked by UP Warriorz at the auction ahead of WPL 2025 for INR 10 lakh. Following a successful season, she went on to make her ODI debut in the tri-series featuring South Africa in Sri Lanka and her T20I debut on the tour of England. She also returned stunning ODI figures of 6 for 52 in Chester-le-Street on the tour to blow away England.