Was trying show everything is good but was hurting on the inside: Jemimah

Jemimah Rodrigues has had plenty of ups and downs in 2022. After a run of poor performances, she was droped from the World Cup squad where India finished fifth in the marquee event in New Zealand. She reveals how that affected her mentally, saying she was hurting on the inside while she showed everyone that she was indeed fine on the outside.

However, Jemimah put some impressive performances in the Women's Bigh Bash League (WBBL) and The Hundred. After India's poor show in the World Cup and the ODI series against Sri Lanka, Jemimah was brought back into the side and earned a place in the Commonwealth Games (CWG) squad. She played a pivotal role in India winning their record seventh Asia Cup title, where she finished as the leading run-getter with 217 runs in eight games.

“There were days, especially in this last year when I was dropped from the team I don't think I would have been able to make it without them (family). When I was dropped from the ODI World Cup and I was going through a very bad phase. I was not Jem at home and they knew it. I was trying to fake it for them, I was trying to be happy, show everything is good on the outside but on the inside I was hurting,” Jemimah said on the show on a show hosted by WV Raman.

“Cricket is something I love the most, playing in World Cup is a dream and both those things didn't happen. For weeks I couldn't sleep well at home, I was getting dreadful dreams and waking up suddenly in the middle of the night. One day I remember my mom and dad we sat down at home all three of us were trying to be happy for each other just so that we could be strong for each other,” she added.

Jemimah has also been named in the T20I tri-series against South Africa and the West Indies and also the T20 World Cup, that is set to get underway from February next year. Harmanpreet Kaur will lead India for the first time in a World Cup, while Smriti Mandhana has been named her deputy.