Follow UsThere’s something about the rags-to-riches story that captures everyone’s imagination.
It might be the most cliched of all stories, it might be the ones that have been told again and again but because of a reason. When you see an athlete rise to the top from the bare bottom, you realise how wrong everyone are when they say ‘sports is only for the rich people’.
Simran Shaikh’s journey is no less.
She was one of eight children in the Shaikh household, meaning that nothing came without due diligence growing up in the narrow lanes of Dharavi, one of the world’s largest slums. Her dad, Jahid Ali, a wireman, and her mom, Akhtari Bano, could have stopped Simran at any point, but they didn’t from realising her dreams.
“The freedom I got at home, I don’t think any other girl would have got that,” Simran told Cricket.com in an exclusive chat.
“My family helped me in everything. I have four sisters and three brothers, and they never discriminated against me; they helped us all. But I put in a lot of hard work, and that’s why you can see the results, Inshallah.”
Ever since she was in school, Simran had set her mind straight; she only wanted to play sports. But it was only a little later that she had fixated on cricket becoming her staple diet. Even when she had set her sights, you know it wasn’t as easy a journey, given how expensive picking up a sport in the country is.
That’s when her mom, Bano, stepped up, buying her a kit worth INR 3,000, helping Simran kick-start her cricketing dream.
“When I was playing gully cricket, there was one brother [Zubair], he helped me a lot, he recommended me to a club after he saw how there was a constant fight in the place where I used to play,”
“So, I joined the club [United Club] he suggested; at that time, there were no fees for women’s cricket. The only requirement was a kit, which my mom bought for me and invested in my future. In our culture, they don’t usually give so much to girls, so my family really backed me, they really supported me in everything,” she added.
But Simran’s interest in sports started long ago when her teacher at school motivated her to pick up sports. While cricket was just one of them, her early memories of absolutely dominating across sports in school events meant that she had set her sights on making it a full-time profession.
“When I was in school, I wasn’t too interested in studies, I was more attracted towards sports. My teacher used to motivate and guide me. I used to play all the sports, and I was there on the podium for all sports.” she recollected.
“I was the only girl among all the boys, I used to play with them and often got taunted, ‘She’s playing with the boys’. Then I used to play gully cricket with my brothers and friends. I used to always perform better than the boys in tournaments, so it gives me happiness,” she remembered fondly.
Until 2011, when Simran was still just nine, she hadn’t quite understood how monumental the sport was because, after all, she was still just playing at her club. But that’s when she found herself not just looking at one certain Virat Kohli but started idolising him, and soon started picking up attributes from him as well.
“Virat Kohli. When I wasn’t even watching cricket regularly, Kohli was my inspiration. Women used not to follow a lot of cricket back then, but I was in love with the game. Cricket was always running on the TV at home, we were always watching.”
“Whenever I used to watch, Kohli either scored a 50 or a 100, so I started following him quite closely. I still follow him quite closely, and that’s also where my aggression comes from.”
Slowly yet steadily, that aggression not only seeped into her game but also proved to be a good influencing factor in her cricketing life as she climbed up the ladder. It wasn’t until 2021 that the Mumbaikar started gaining more publicity, thanks to her ability to clear the fence with ease.
While she only played two games, her high score of 30 was enough for the Mumbai selectors to pick her for the T20 format. There, she excelled with immediate effect, scoring 152 runs in six games and averaging 30.40. It was enough for UP Warriorz to quickly raise their paddle and make her their own future star.
However, it didn’t turn out as expected, as Shaikh had a horrendous season, scoring just 29 runs across seven innings, averaging 5.79, and eventually getting herself axed from the Women’s Premier League (WPL) altogether.
“They [UP Warriorz] released me after the first edition, my performance was down. I thought that I had to work on myself and prove a point that I could come back to this stage,” she said.
Over the next two years, the all-rounder worked hard on her batting, including scoring 176 runs and averaging 22 in the Senior Women's T20 Trophy 2024, winning the trophy for Mumbai. In the very next tournament—the Senior Women's T20 Challenger Trophy 2024—Simran did what she is now recognised as the best—smacking sixes.
In a campaign where run-scoring was fairly consistent, Simran outdid almost everyone in the six-hitting department, smashing seven sixes, only behind Richa Ghosh’s eight. No one was even close to her strike rate (202.5), which meant that her comeback to WPL was just around the corner. But if you told her that Gujarat Giants were going to shell INR 1.9 crore for her service, she’d have pinched you.
“When we were watching the auction, I couldn’t believe it [price tag]. I worked a lot, scored a lot of runs in domestic cricket, and then played in the Challengers Trophy, where I did very well. That’s why Gujarat got me for that money. I was thinking that I would be bought at, say, 10-20 lakhs, but when it went to crores, I was shocked. It was quite a happy day, and Mom was too happy,” Simran said.
So, what led to Gujarat shelling big bucks for WPL 2025? Well, the story goes like this: head coach Michael Klinger, who had seen and scouted the right-handed batter during the domestic season, was left mightly impressed by her ability to hit a six off the first ball.
“Yeah, I heard that he was following me quite a bit in domestic cricket. He was involved, and he always wanted me in the team. It was great to watch his video where he backed me, now it is my turn to make him proud,” she added.
“Whatever matches, I just want to prove that he was right. He supports me a lot, even if I don’t perform. I hadn’t yet performed well in four matches, I felt very bad; I hadn’t yet proven. I feel quite nervous but whatever games, whatever opportunities I get, I will do it. I just want to prove him right.”
However, thus far, she’s failed to take the opportunity with both hands, including in the fielding department, where she takes great pride. Earlier in the season, the Mumbaikar dropped an absolute sitter to give another life to Richa Ghosh, who ended up taking two points away from the Giants.
In the aftermath of that incident, cameras panned towards Gujarat’s new signing, who wasn’t one bit pleased with her own efforts out there in the park.
“Be it WPL or India game or whatever live games you see, there is a lot of audience, and there’s a lot of pressure. I love fielding, I enjoy fielding, and even when there’s a misfield, I take it as an opportunity to learn and become better,” she talks about fielding.
“My approach is always that I keep learning, and I enjoy fielding, even if it comes at a good pace. When I dropped the catch, I felt very bad, I felt that my team could have won if I had caught it. Whenever they were hitting sixes, I wondered why I dropped it, especially when the best fielder dropped a catch.”
But as luck would have it, she hasn’t been able to replicate her Senior Women’s T20 form in the WPL, meaning more time on the bench. However, that doesn’t deter her one bit from having a wholesome interaction with skipper Ash Gardner, who she looks up to when it comes to power-hitting.
“When she [Gardner] bowls to me, she always challenges me, ‘Try and hit me’. She watches my game closely while she is bowling, and the practice is quite good. I get to learn a lot, the shots that she plays, I learn from it,” she revealed.
“I look at those sixes and go, ‘Yaar, itna lamba marti hai yaar [She’s hitting it huge], I know we can also do that. But there is a difference between the strengths, so I keep learning from all these smaller things. I keep talking to her. She keeps everything simple: ‘See the ball, hit the ball’.”
Unfortunately for Simran, she hasn’t been able to crack that challenge either, falling short of the target of 14 runs in an over against Gardner, the best all-rounder in Women’s T20Is. But the fact that she’s getting to rub shoulders with the likes of Gardner and Deandra Dottin, day in and day out, only would make her stronger - both physically and mentally.
What is undeniable, though, is that this journey is an inspiration in itself, from rags to sixes, from the streets of Dharavi to the cauldrons of Chinnaswamy, you name it.