Teenaged all-rounder Rabbjyot Rajput could very soon be
making Canadian history as the country’s youngest ever
international Women’s cricketer. The fourteen-year-old
Rabbyjot Rajput, who was born on July 8, 2008, in New
Delhi, India, has been included in the Canadian National Women’s
cricket squad to participate in the 2022 International Cricket
Council’s (ICC) South American Championships to be held in Brazil
in a few weeks time from October 13-16, 2022.
Accomplished all-rounder Divya
Saxena has been appointed as
captain of the fourteen-member
squad announced by the
Canadian National Women’s
Selectors.
The full squad is
as follows: Divya Saxena
(Captain), Achini Perera (Vice Captain), Hala Azmat,
Rey Blais, Mannut Hundal, Amarpal Kaur,
Krima Kapadia, Danielle McGahey, Rhea Misra, Kainat Qazi,
Hiba Shamshad, Rabbyjot Rajput, Sana Zafar and Saniyah Zia.
Canada will join Argentina, Peru and hosts Brazil for the three-day
prestigious ICC tournament. As a specially invited team,
it will be Canada’s first-ever appearance at the tournament
which will be celebrating its twelfth year of existence. The
tournament’s Peru-hosted 2019 edition was the first to be
awarded official ICC points ranking status. The 2020 and 2021
editions were, unfortunately, both cancelled because of the
COVID pandemic.
Rabbyjot Rajput’s Canadian Senior Women’s Brazil
ICC South American Championships squad inclusion
has been warranted by her outstanding performances
during the recently concluded Canadian National Women’s
T20 Tournament. Representing the Ontario Heat as the host
Province’s second “developmental” team, “Rabby” as she’s
now fondly known to everyone who has made her delightful
acquaintance, belied her teenaged years to produce outstanding
bowling performances in becoming the tournament’s third
highest wicket-taker.
Only the veteran Canadian National Women’s spinner Sonali
Vig, now approaching her forty-seventh birthday and a full
thirty-three years senior to the fourteen-year-old Rabby and
Mammath Hundal had superior wicket tallies at the conclusion
of the five-day tournament. Vig’s fourteen captured wickets
and Hundal’s thirteen were both marginally superior to Rajput’s
very impressive haul of eleven tournament scalps.