U19 cricket world champion Trisha’s tale: How a father buying a plastic bat for his 2-yr-old daughter started a dream | Cricket News

Trisha Gongadi emerged as India’s brightest cricketing star at the U19 World Cup, picking up three wickets in the final and leading India to the ultimate junior triumph.In 10 innings prior to the final, the opening batter had piled a hundred, two half-centuries and two 40s, at an average of 64.8. The youngster had started cricket at age 2, as her sports-mad father planned a perfect junior career, culminating in the India win xx wickets.
On Sunday, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, every time South Africa were looking to change gears she came up with a breakthrough. With her brisk legspin, she had earlier picked up seven wickets in the tournament and is leading run-scorer with XX runs.
Story continues below this ad

It was father G Rami Reddy’s vision to condition Trisha’s muscle memory in cricket. “In ball games, you have to play as many balls as possible to imbibe it into your muscle memory,” he tells The Indian Express. “I believe when children are surrounded certain things at a young age they start grasping them. I thought she would understand where the middle (of the bat) is and would develop that coordination,” he says.
It was father G Rami Reddy’s vision that perfected Trisha’s journey to become the first Indian U-19 centurion. (Special Arrangement)
When she was around four, he started dragging her to the gym where he worked as an instructor. Then he made a concrete pitch and tied a few nets at the Bhadradri Junior College, where he bowled at least a thousand balls at her. Before he is snap-judged as an overbearing and obsessive father, he puts his pushiness into context. “Usually, everyone starts around eight years but there will be too much competition starting at that stage. So I made sure that she started at two,” he says. “There is only one life and I decided to give her the best,” he adds.
In his memoir Black and White: The Way I See It, Richard Williams, the father of Serena and Venus, writes he brought a second-hand tennis racquet even before his first daughter Yetunde was born. Andre Agassi’s father hung tennis balls over his crib, so that his eyes got used to the ball’s movements. László Polgár, a psycholog, started training his three daughters in chess from the age of four, and resolved to prove that women could challenge men through early exposure to the game.
Rami Reddy fits into the annals of sports, where the father figure looms big. It’s what helped Trisha become the first U-19 Indian woman cricketer to score an international hundred and India’s brightest spark in the junior T20 World Cup, as well. Story continues below this ad
She was barely two years old, an age doting fathers buy daughters Barbie dolls and teddy bears, when her father brought her a plastic cricket bat. The father, would throw plastic or soft tennis balls at her, so that one of the earliest habits she formed was swatting aside the fuzzy spheroids.

G Trisha leading the charge with the bat in the chase! 👍👍#TeamIndia zoom past 50.
Follow The Match ▶️ https://t.co/hkhiLzuLwj#SAvIND | #U19WorldCup pic.twitter.com/03DkJFJ3a8
— BCCI Women (@BCCIWomen) February 2, 2025
The dream to make his daughter a cricket star springs from his own failed sporting ambitions. A hockey player at the U-16 level for Hyderabad, he forsook the dream after moving to Bhadrachalam, a nondescript town 300-odd kilometres from the Telangana capital. The cricket facilities in the town were basic, but Reddy ensured that her body stood the trials of a sportsperson. “I started early and made sure there was not too much load on her joints. I did it all scientifically,” says Reddy.
Importantly, he ensured Trisha ate right. He set a diet chart and figured out the ideal amount of proteins and nutrients she required. “No supplements were used. Everything was homemade. Since she used to play and practice a lot from a young age we had to give a lot of protein,” he reveals.
So passionate was he about making Trisha a cricketer that he didn’t send her to school for some time and arranged private tuition. “I thought it would strain her,” he says. When she was finally enrolled, she attended schools for three hours, while devoting six-eight hours a day to cricket. “If she had been in the orthodox schooling system too it would have been highly unlikely that she would have played for her country,” he says.
Trisha with Mithali Raj and her coach John Manoj (R).
When she was 11, he put her into the famous St. John’s Cricket Academy in Hyderabad, where Trisha’s maternal grandparents stayed. Shortly, he too packed up for Hyderabad, quitting his job. “My father-in-law was finding it hard to take her to practice sessions. They had a minor accident while going to practice once, and after that I decided to shift to Hyderabad,” he says. Story continues below this ad
At the academy, which has produced stalwarts such as VVS Laxman and Mithali Raj, her hand-eye coordination startled coach John Manoj. She was so good that she started playing in age-group teams far above her age. “She played U-16 at eight years for Hyderabad. At 11 years she played U-19 and U-23, at 12 she started to play for the senior team at 13 years and India did an NCA spin camp,” Manoj says.
Endless hours hitting the tennis ball from the age of two conditioned her power-hitting skills, accentuated her top-hand grip and absolute devotion to her craft. The practice enables her to judge the length fast, Manoj says. He is at a loss of words to explain her talent. He asks: “Why did Sachin Tendulkar, at the age of 16, play for the country?” He pauses and says: “Because he was an exception. And this girl is an exception.”
Her brisk leg-breaks have produced important wickets too,like the three in the final. “She has a different action. So, initially, if you have not played her, it takes you a couple of overs. So, she gets 2-3 overs in before you even realise it,” observes Hyderabad coach Vidyut Jaisimha.
At the Academy, she dazzled Mithali with her variations too. “She would tell me, ‘Try and focus on her. I think she will come good in future’,” Manoj says. Story continues below this ad
With every step of progress she makes in the big world of cricket, her father’s heart swells with pride. Her journey has just begun, but all the planning, passion and sacrifices have begun to bear fruits. He would know that he is a lucky one too—for every Richard Williams, László Polgár, and Mike Agassi, there are a thousand nameless fathers that failed to live the sporting dream.