Veda Krishnamurthy: 'I thought I was bigger than the game'

Having kicked off her ODI career with a fifty on debut against England in 2011, the knock should have given then 18-year-old Veda Krishnamurthy the required confidence to achieve greater heights. Her attacking batting style meant she was entrusted with the role of a finisher, but the early success lulled the India batter to believe she was "bigger than the game".

"The biggest mistake of my cricket career was that I thought I was the greatest player when I was 18," Veda, now 27, said on Indian Express Facebook Live. "I thought I was bigger than the game, that nobody could be better than me.

"It was only in 2014-15 when things started to fall in place for me. I realised cricket is bigger than anyone. This is true for life as well. You need to have gratitude, appreciation for what you have."

While she has scored eight half-centuries in 41 ODI innings, those knocks were interspersed with a string of low scores. She was part of the squad for the T20 World Cup in Australia earlier this year, but she was dropped from the ODI side in 2018 after several single-digit scores in a row. Veda, however, has no regrets about the way she plays.

"My aggressive nature has definitely gone against me sometimes in my career. The higher the reward associated with risk, the higher is the chance of missing out. But I don't regret any of the rash shots I played. Regrets don't work.

"I like to stick to my natural game. If it comes off, it will flip the match in such a way that the opponents cannot come back. Sometimes because of me, things have gone wrong for the team, but that's cricket. You cannot let go off your natural instincts. I would like to say I am the nail in the coffin, either for my team or the other team, depends on how that day turns out."

Over the last ten years, Veda has represented India in 48 ODIs and 76 T20Is, and has played most of those games under or alongside Mithali Raj. There was a time in 2007 though when Veda was in awe of India's ODI captain.

"Mithali scored a double-hundred in a two-day match when I had just started playing for Karnataka. I was struck by how effortlessly she scored her runs. When I first batted with her, I called up a friend and told her, 'Do you know who I batted with today?' That's the kind of influence she had on us. I have learnt a lot in the 8-9 years I have spent with her.

"Mithali is very professional. We all try to learn from her how she manages to compartmentalise things, does one thing at a time. She has mastered the art of concentration."

Veda though is closer to India's T20I captain Harmanpreet Kaur in her approach to the game. When asked to compare the captaincy styles of Raj and Kaur, Veda said: "Mithali is very calm on the field. You discuss your plans beforehand, you are told what your role is, if you are not able to execute your role, she discusses it in the team meeting later.

"Harmanpreet is a more on-field captain. She is more aggressive, she is always telling you what to do. Both are very good in their own ways and are doing a fantastic job in the different formats right now."