Renuka Singh Thakur is a 26-year-old right-arm medium-fast bowler who plays for the Himachal Pradesh women’s cricket team. She took the world by storm as she took 4 wickets for 18 against Australia during the Group A opening game of the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. She took wickets and dismissed Alyssa Healy, Beth Mooney, Meg Lanning and Tahlia McGrath.

She has since been picking key wickets and has a shot at the player of the tournament award. 

Early Life

Renuka Singh was born on 1st February 1996 in Shimla, Himachal Pradesh. She lost her father at the age of 3 who used to work at the Himachal Pradesh Irrigation and Public health department at Rohru. Her mother, Sunita Thakur, also started working as a class IV employee at the Himachal Pradesh Irrigation and Public health department. She further added that when Renuka was a little child, she started showing interest in playing cricket at her village ground near the Kundi Nullah in Rohru. Her uncle Bhupinder Singh Thakur pushed her family to enrol Renuka in the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Academy’s women’s residential academy at the age of 15. 

Soon, the fast bowler became the centre of attraction when she broke into the state team and bagged 21 wickets in the 2018-19 season. These performances led to her selection in the Challenger Trophy, followed by an India A call-up for the tour of Australia. She then made her national team debut against Australia on 7th Oct 2021. Then on 18 February 2022, Thakur was called up to the ODI team against New Zealand which marked her International Debut.

Cricket Career

With 23 dismissals, Singh has the most wickets taken in the 2019–20 Senior Women’s One Day League. Renuka Singh Thakur began working for the railway in 2021, the same year that she also made her T20 debut for the Indian Women’s Cricket team during a series against Australia. On October 7, 2021, she played her first Women’s Twenty20 International (WT20I) match for India against Australia.

She was selected to play for India in the 2022 Women’s Cricket World Cup in New Zealand in January 2022. She played for India against New Zealand on February 18, 2022, in her first Women’s One Day International (WODI). She was selected to play for India in the cricket tournament at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England, in July 2022.