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Niki Prasad is as prodigious as they come, but her rise to India’s Under-19 captaincy is about more than just runs and wickets.
India’s new Under-19 Captain, Niki Prasad.
Indian cricket has reached a stage where being a prodigy isn’t enough to guarantee success. Heck, it cannot even get you extra backing even in age-group cricket. Every state has a prodigy who gets projected as a future India star. Mumbai alone provides five or six such talents every year – all labeled as the next-big-thing or better-than-that.
When too-good-for-your-age runs and technique don’t stand out, you need to push your case through the intangibles – ability to perform under pressure, discipline including focus on diet and fitness, self-belief, composure on the field and gravitas. Again, not everyone is able to imbibe such ideals and push their own limits.
However, those who can, they create moments — and memories — which open the door to bigger and better things via the decision-makers.
Karnataka Under-19 captain Niki Prasad had that moment in October 2022 when, in a Women’s Under-19 T20 Trophy pre-quarter final against Bengal in Ahmedabad, her team scored a measly 59/9.
Karnataka still ended up with a seven-run win.
How? Well, Prasad rolled the dice and top-loaded her bowling attack. The specialists including Reema Fareed, Vandita Rao and Prasad herself bowled their quota of four overs each by the end of 16th over. By then, Mithila Vinod had bowled three overs and Nirmitha CJ one.
When Vinod started the 17th over, Prasad didn’t know who’d bowl the next three. But she didn’t have to brainstorm as Bengal were bowled out three balls into the over. Karnataka went on to play the final.
“I see Harmanpreet Kaur a lot, and I idolise her,” Prasad tells News18 CricketNext in an exclusive conversation while shedding light on her captaincy philosophy.
“She (Kaur) is very calm, very clever. I haven’t spoken to Harman di yet, but in the future, I would like to speak to her about captaincy because I really look up to her. Even when I’m on the field, I try and make sure that my team is calm in every situation. I know that players will always be nervous and excited, but I just make sure that the team is maintains calmness on the field and in one direction.”
Calmness sounds like a rudimentary characteristic but in age-group and Under-19 cricket, captains who can withstand pressure on the field are a rare commodity.
Having made her senior cricket debut as a 13-year-old (she was nine on her Under-16 debut and 11 when she played her maiden Under-19 game), Prasad commands the respect of her players. In return, she’s known to treat them fairly and calmly.
2024 was one of the rare years where there was hardly any debate when the BCCI selectors had to pick a captain for the 2024 ACC Under-19 Asia Cup and the 2025 ICC Under-19 World Cup. Prasad was the unanimous choice.
Steps And Missteps
Prasad began her cricket journey by tagging alongside her cousin for playground trips. First, it was all tennis balls but once the switch to the leather ball was made, she informed her parents that the sport has now become much more than just a pastime.
Prasad was enrolled in a youth academy and her mother became an active supporter.
Every practice session or an early morning match, she’d make Prasad breakfast, travel to the academy, stay with her through practice, and then take her to school.
Prasad acknowledges her mother realised the sincerity of her passion early.
“When I started playing there were no girls’ teams in any of the academies,” she says. “So I used to play with the boys. I was pretty young, so we used to play with the under-14, under-10 boys, under-12 boys… And I still remember that in my first academy, there was not even a single girl. Only after two years, when I joined another academy, I saw two or three other girls playing there.”
Prasad’s first love was batting but she eventually developed the off-spinner. “I was always an off-spinner”, she emphasises, almost as a clarification in case one takes her for someone who switched to the art as a compromise.
Her first idol was Rahul Dravid because of the Karnataka connection before she became aware of the legendary Mithali Raj, and that ends one way only.
The biggest shake-up of Prasad’s playing career came when she wasn’t picked in India’s squad for the inaugural 2022 Under-19 Women’s World Cup, which seemed a certainty because of the progress she had shown.
Prasad was not even 18 but her technical ability, all-round skills and fitness had been the talk of the town. She was a regular in the Under-19 squads for Karnataka and played enough matches in the BCCI’s Challenger Trophy tournaments to at least deserve a spot in the squad, if not in the first eleven.
Grief-struck, Prasad was told her strike-rate is a roadblock. The feedback in the circles was that she was being seen as an ‘ODI player’ who didn’t have the aerial shots in her arsenal and thus deemed unfit for a T20 World Cup.
“I think not being part of the last under-19 World Cup did leave an impact,” she says. “I was grieving for a while, I was upset about it, but then that impact became a big positive. I made sure that that setback should be a learning for me, and [understood] I needed to really, really improve myself, start working really hard because nothing comes easy. You have to go through failures. And that’s when I realised the key – this is a step for me to grow, that this is nothing that can pull me back, this [is] learning and everything is just going to make me go higher.”
She soon joined ‘Just Cricket Academy’ in Bengaluru, where her coach, Vinayak facilitated her transition into a power-hitter. The next two years were all about open-net sessions under the sun, working on bat speed, swinging power and matching it with timing.
“[Now,] I just need to hit the ball really hard. When I go to the matches as well, if I see any loose balls, or if I see any short balls, I just need to make sure that they go outside the ground,” she says.
Nisarg Nayak, a Mumbai-based women’s cricket scout and talent manager who has worked with Prasad, reveals that following the setback, she changed her diet completely. Junk food and anything not homecooked no longer merited a place on her plate and she followed it religiously.
“The first thing I heard from him after I wasn’t selected for the last World Cup was, ‘I just know that you’re going to lead the next World Cup, and I am sure that you will win the World Cup for India the next edition’,” Prasad says about Nayak.
“He has been there, seen my journey for two years, and he has also given me good, positive criticism, and told me that this is what you need to improve on, this is what the coaches are saying,” she adds.
The hard work paid off. She was the top-scorer in the 2024 T20 Challenger Trophy with 162 runs in four matches at a strike-rate of 125.58, a huge improvement from the mid-80s two years ago. Two things in her game were the clear differentials: an ability to smack sixes off the backfoot, and an impressive range of hits around the ground. Last year, she hit an 80-metre six in Pune.
“I’ve also learned that you need to always stay humble and down to earth, and nothing is going to come easy to you… You can’t skip any practice session until your body is really tired or you’re very sick. The key is to never miss your sessions. You always need to stay one step ahead… I’ve started making a journal. That’s when you know what you’re learning and what level you are at.”
She now sees that 2022 snub as a blessing in disguise.
“I am very happy it happened then because if it didn’t, I wouldn’t have been in this position… I want success, but I also want that failure, because I want to learn and I want to grow,” she says.
2022 was also a crucial year for Prasad’s development as captain.
As India clinched the Under-19 World Cup title, Prasad won the Under-19 Challengers Trophy as the skipper of India ‘C’.
At the time, Hyderabad cricketer-turned-analyst Ananya Upendran had reported how a rival team approached India ‘C’ mid-tournament, saying they didn’t have it in them to reach the final. The Prasad-led side took the sledge personally.
The 19-year-old doesn’t remember it anymore though.
“Anytime anyone comes against my team, I really take that to heart, and I really want to prove everyone wrong and make my team win. I want my team on top. So that’s what we did, and we won that Challengers Trophy as well,” she says.
What worked for her batting viz the strike-rate issues, applied to her captaincy, too.
“I definitely like when someone goes against me, because that gives me more confidence, more motivation to do better,” she says.
Every lesson learnt in 2022 reflected in 2024 when India romped through the inaugural Women’s T20 U19 Asia Cup in Malaysia. The team beat Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh in the group stage while chasing totals and didn’t take more than 15 overs on each occasion to finish the job.
In the final, Bangladesh put them under a bit of pressure though. Prasad and Co. were put in to bat first. Farjana Easmin’s four-wicket haul kept India to a sub-par 117/7 in 20 overs.
But with as many as seven bowling options at her disposal (she didn’t use herself), Prasad put a chokehold on Bangladesh, bowling them out for 76 in 18.3 overs. Aayushi Shukla took three wickets while Sonam Yadav and Parunika Sisodia took two each.
“Our team was really united, and I give this credit to our support staff because they have made sure that each and everyone knows what the others’ strengths are, what the plans are of other players. So even the batters knew the plan of the bowlers, and the bowlers knew the plan of the batters,” Prasad says.
One Goal
Late last year, Prasad landed a contract with the Delhi Capitals during the Women’s Premier League (WPL) auction in Bengaluru. She watched the action unfold on TV with her India U19 teammates, going through a roller coaster of emotions.
G Kamalini was the first of the three members who eventually landed contracts. Prasad initially retreated to her room, the wave of emotions a secret shared only with her journal. After she didn’t find a team in the first round of auction, an earnest ‘It’s okay’ was her response upon being informed.
When her name came back in the accelerated round and DC sealed her signature, the girls stormed back and celebrated. VJ Joshitha’s selection at Royal Challengers Bengaluru added to the fun.
“They’re very excited for all three of us,” Prasad says. “When you see that such a good team has picked you, you get a lot of confidence, because DC, I feel, is one of the best teams in WPL. They have the best players, and it’s going to be a good opportunity for me. I’m grateful for it, and I’m just going to go out there and express myself and show what I can do.”
She can’t wait to learn from Meg Lanning, Marizanne Kapp and Jemimah Rodriguez.
“I’m definitely going to ask a lot of things from them and not stay quiet. I’m going to learn a lot of things. I love Jemimah’s fielding, her batting, and got to have a conversation with her as well.”
For now, though, Prasad’s focus is entirely on the U19 World Cup, which begins on January 18 and runs till February 2. With the event also being held in Malaysia and India taking an almost similar squad that won the U19 Asia Cup, Prasad is looking at it like a ‘home event’.
Prasad hopes the experience of the conditions, weather and the pitches will be an advantage as they take on non-Asian opponents like Australia, England and the West Indies.
The relentless dedication and razor-sharp focus are hardly a surprise for Prasad’s aides.
“She has gone completely into the game. That’s all she thinks about,” Nayak says. “Whoever asks her about her future plans, she just says one thing, ‘I have to win matches for India, I want to win the World Cup for India’.”
Prasad confirms.
“I still want to continue working really hard, and I want to win matches for India. I don’t just want to play for India. I want to win matches for India,” she says.
