Jemimah Rodrigues

Jemimah Jessica Rodrigues (born 5 September 2000) is an Indian cricketer. She is an all-rounder who plays for the Indian national women's cricket team and Mumbai women's cricket team. She has also played for the Under-17 Maharashtra field hockey team.

In June 2018, she was awarded the Jagmohan Dalmiya Award presented by cricketer MS Dhoni for Best Domestic Junior Women's Cricketer by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) at Jharkhand.

Early life
Jemimah Rodrigues was born and brought up in Bhandup, Mumbai, India along with her two brothers, Enoch and Eli. She is a Mangalorean Catholic and a practising Christian. At the age of four years, she started playing season cricket. Her family moved to Bandra West at a very young age to afford the children better sports facilities. Her father, Ivan Rodrigues, was a junior coach in her school and she grew up bowling to her brothers. Having coached her since the very beginning, Ivan Rodrigues founded the girls’ cricket team at her school. Jemimah enjoyed playing both field hockey and cricket in her youth.

Rodrigues studied at St. Joseph's Convent High School, Mumbai and later at Rizvi College of Arts, Science & Commerce.

Career
Rodrigues was selected for the Maharashtra under-17 and under-19 hockey teams. Her cricket U-19 debut was at 12-and-a-half, during the 2012–13 cricket season. She was picked when only 13 for the under-19 state cricket team. Jemimah says that her father is her primary coach and her "Hero" and she owes all her success to him. Rodrigues is the second woman after Smriti Mandhana to score a double century in a 50-over cricket match. She scored 202* in just 163 balls in Aurangabad against the Saurashtra team in November 2017. This score included 21 boundaries. Just before this match, she also scored 178 off 142 balls against Gujarat team in the under-19 tournament.

She was named in the Indian squad for the three-match ODI series against South Africa in February 2018. She made her Women's Twenty20 International cricket (WT20I) debut for India Women against South Africa Women on 13 February 2018. She made her Women's One Day International cricket (WODI) debut for India Women against Australia Women on 12 March 2018.

In October 2018, she was named in India's squad for the 2018 ICC Women's World Twenty20 tournament in the West Indies. Ahead of the tournament, she was named as the player to watch in the team. Following the conclusion of the tournament, she was named as the standout player in the team by the International Cricket Council (ICC).

In October 2018, looking at her striking achievements, Rodrigues was signed by a Sports Marketing firm Baseline Ventures, having to manage all her commercial interests. On 1 March 2019, she attended a ceremony of the Indian Cricket Team's New Jersey launch for the ICC 2019 World Cup, where other cricketers including Harmanpreet Kaur, MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, and Prithvi Shaw were also present. In January 2020, she was named in India's squad for the 2020 ICC Women's T20 World Cup in Australia.

In May 2021, she was named in India's Test squad for their one-off match against the England women's cricket team. In the summer of 2021, Rodrigues competed in the inaugural Hundred competition for the Northern Superchargers. She excelled with the bat, averaging 41.50 and also posting the highest score of the women's Hundred with 92* against Welsh Fire. She was the second-highest run-scorer in the women's Hundred tournament with 249 runs. In August 2021, Rodrigues was also named in India's Test squad for their series against Australia.

She also played for Melbourne Renegades in the 2021 WBBL. In February 2022, she was retained by Northern Superchargers for the 2022 edition of the Hundred.

In August 2022, she won the silver medal with India's team at inaugural women's cricket tournament at the Commonwealth Games held in Birmingham,England.

In the inaugural edition of Women's Premier League 2023, she was sold to Delhi Capitals for Rs 2.20 Crore. She made an impressive debut in her WPL 2023 debut match scoring 22 runs of just 15 balls against Royal Challengers Bangalore.

Rodrigues made her Test debut against England in December 2023.