Sneh Rana's 2025 Roller-Coaster: From Axed to World Cup Champion
The year 2025 started on a sour note for Sneh Rana. She found herself left out of the Indian cricket team once again. It had been nearly two years since her exclusion from the T20 squad after India's semi-final exit at the 2023 World Cup. More than a year had passed since she was dropped from the ODI team too, despite being a prolific wicket-taker. The selectors made way for a rising player instead.
Things looked even bleaker when she went unsold at the auction for the 2025 Women's Premier League. This marked a rare occurrence for an Indian international cricketer and represented a significant financial blow. The future seemed uncertain for Rana at that point.
A Dramatic Turnaround
But 2025 ended in spectacular fashion for the determined cricketer. Drafted late into the Royal Challengers Bengaluru squad as an injury replacement, she made an immediate impact. Rana took six wickets in five WPL matches. In one memorable innings, she smashed 26 runs off just six balls, achieving one of the highest strike rates in women's T20 cricket.
Her performances earned her a recall to the Indian ODI team. At a tri-nation tournament, she claimed 15 wickets in five matches, including her first five-wicket haul. Her outstanding display earned her the player of the tournament award. Soon after, she found herself back in the Indian T20 side and secured a spot in the World Cup squad.
At the World Cup, Rana continued her brilliant form. She took seven wickets in six matches and scored 99 runs at an average just under 50. As the Indian women created history by winning their first World Cup, Rana proudly held the trophy aloft. She became part of a moment that promises to transform the narrative of women's cricket in India completely.
"Roller-coaster year!" Rana laughs during our conversation. "Isn't that what they say?"
The Rebel Spirit
Now at 31, as she prepares for a new WPL season with Delhi Capitals under a ₹50-lakh contract, Rana basks in cricketing glory like never before in her long career. I met her at her home in Dehradun just weeks before the ongoing WPL began.
Her two-storeyed house features a pink façade with extensive lattice-work and bright blue doorways. Rana greeted me wearing a Lincoln green hoodie and loose black denim, holding a cup of tea, her shoulder-length hair open.
"When I was younger, a friend named me 'vidrohi'—rebel—because I would fight for any cause that moved me," she revealed. "I got a tattoo of it..." She pulled up her sleeve to show the word lettered across her wrist. "That's the attitude I played with in 2025. Fight, no matter what."
Every match after her comeback became a moment to seize, a fight to wage without inhibition. "Even at the World Cup, for many of us, it felt like one last dance. I remember before the final, every one of us had this conviction—this was our time, we will lift the cup," she recalls.
Changing the Narrative
Rana believes the World Cup victory will usher in a new era for women's cricket in India. The neglect the game faced for decades may finally become a thing of the past. "That mindset that women's cricket is not serious, not good enough, that crap, I think will totally change," she states firmly.
"It has already started changing with the WPL which gets such large viewership. All our matches are televised now. This will change the mindset of people watching, as well as parents whose daughters want to play cricket. Those girls will now get support and backing. They have a platform and structure because of the WPL, because there is more money and more matches in domestic cricket, many more tournaments to play, a clear pathway."
Early Beginnings
Rana took to cricket as a child, playing with her sister and cousins. "I never felt like 'oh I'm a girl playing cricket' because all of us were playing all kinds of sports all the time." When she grew older, she realized she was the only girl in her village playing with boys in local tournaments. "But I was so good that the boys would come and call me to play every time there was a match."
At age nine, a cricket academy from Dehradun city came calling to her village, Sinaula. All the boys turned up for trials. Someone mentioned there was also a girl who played well. Rana heard this and ran away to hide, fearing she might be called to bat or bowl. Friends and family found her and coaxed her out. She bowled and batted a few overs, impressing the coaches so much that they visited her parents to ensure she joined the academy.
A decade later, Rana made her India debut in 2014. "But even then, no one actually knew women's cricket existed," she remembers. "None of our matches were shown on TV. Entry to stadiums for all women's games was free, yet no one showed up."
Now the women's game, especially the WPL, packs stadiums even though people pay for tickets.
Financial Struggles and Progress
"It was hard to make a career out of cricket then," Rana admits. "There was very little money, like ₹1,000 per domestic match if you were in the playing XI. It's ten times more now. But even though my family wasn't rich—in fact we had a financial crisis—no one let me feel it. I was always allowed to play because that's what gave me happiness."
Back then, even getting picked for the Indian team didn't guarantee matches. Till as recently as 2022, the Indian women's team averaged one international series per year. "Now we easily get to play 5-6 international series a year, plus a Test match in every series," says Rana. "In 2021, I remember, we played a Test match after an eight-year gap!"
Previous Comeback and Personal Loss
That 2021 Test match against England in Bristol marked another remarkable "vidrohi" comeback for Rana. After suffering an injury in 2016, she was out of the game for almost a year. "I was just doing rehab, didn't even get to touch a bat," she says. Even as she eased back into domestic cricket, national selectors seemed to have forgotten her.
It took five years and that England Test for Rana to be called again. Just a month before her recall, she lost her father. "I was happy to be back in the team, but the person who made it possible wasn't there anymore. I was so lost."
The series turned out fantastic for her personally. She took a four-wicket haul and played a brilliant batting innings to save India from losing the Bristol Test.
"I got another tattoo back then, a year or so after my injury," Rana says, lifting her sleeve to show the phrase "I refuse to sink" inked on her forearm. This motto perfectly embodies the spirit of Sneh Rana—a rebel who fought her way from exclusion to becoming a World Cup champion.
