She was okay with letting herself down but when it came to her team, it was non-negotiable. She wouldn’t have rested easily otherwise. I had to do well.” She did and won India the match by scoring the winning runs. “When I walked out to bowl for the final ODI, my body was sore but my mind was racing.

They did not give me a chance,” she laughed.Īt breakfast her teammates helped her to relax and focus on the third and final game.

I have my own routine for pre match day mornings but they were insistent I break my routine.

“Within minutes Harmanpreet (Kaur) and Smriti (Mandhana) called me and said they were taking me out for breakfast. “Having slept really late I got up around 10.30am the following morning”, she said. It was not a happy space,” Goswami had said a day after a no ball had cost India an ODI win against Australia in September 2021. “I was pacing up and down the room till about 3.30am. Her longevity as a fast bowler is a testimony. What one can add here is that she was equally obsessive, a quality needed to be great. That she was the most diligent and conscientious is also known. How does one best describe Goswami? That she was one of the best the world had seen is known and accepted. It was one of dominance and assertion, of winning and achievement, of bowling fast and breaking taboos, of creating a niche that now many will want to emulate.

They were used to the narrative of being underprivileged, content at playing the second fiddle. Women’s cricket, before Mithali Raj and Goswami, was used to discrimination for the longest time. She was there for the fans in flesh and blood, for people to experience and be a part of her journey, enjoy and consume the acts few had done before her. Goswami picked her wickets in front of thousands.

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