From the legendary trio of Hayley-Nat-Melie who’ve just been notching up runs for fun all season, to a 16-year-old in G Kamalini having the confidence of smashing the first ball she faces for a boundary, to Amanjot Kaur standing up and battling it out in tough situations, to S Sajana turning her game around for the team, to finally Harmanpreet Kaur being the rock around all this, Devieka Palshikaar, Mumbai Indians’ Batting Coach, has seen and been right in the middle of all the action behind the scenes as MI have notched up a mountain of runs in every ground this year. Here she is, in an exclusive chat with mumbaiindians.com, talking about how it’s all coming about. Excerpts..

Q: You’ve been around the coaching circuit for a while now. What’s the impact you’ve seen of the WPL for women’s cricket in the local academies, the streets and in Indian families?

A: WPL has had a major impact not just in academies and in Indian families, but also in the domestic circuit and the BCCI. Most of us started from street cricket either with friends or with brothers. But now you see parents taking interest and enrolling their daughters into academies for coaching, that too at a very early age. Girls start playing from the age of six or seven these days. We see so many reels on Instagram of girls playing at a very early age. And their basics are so perfect, which means they start very early. That’s the impact of the WPL.

Q: Sajana Sajeevan was the star of the previous season, getting unearthed with that first ball six to win MI the game. She’s spoken about how she was given the message in the nets that she could face only 3-4 balls in an innings and had to be prepared for that. As a batting coach, how do you prepare batters for this, given especially that they are usually top-order batters who usually bat long for their state sides?

A: That’s correct, Sajana knew her role for this team. That role clarity was there right from the beginning and that makes even my job of preparing players easy. Some of them do play in the top order in the domestic circuit, but here, they know very well at which position they would be batting, how many deliveries they would be facing. Preparation also takes place according to that role. With Sajana, we were doing a lot of range hitting in different areas of the ground. Earlier, she would hit only towards deep mid-wicket, but we had discussions about playing the same shot but choosing differing areas. That was the result of her first ball six (against Delhi Capitals in 2024), which went over long-on. We focused on playing 360 degrees. 

Q: MI currently boast of three of the world’s best all-rounders in Amelia Kerr, Nat Sciver-Brunt and Hayley Matthews. A word on each of them on what makes them special and anecdotes of how they are different from each other?

A: Yes, they are the best all-rounders and we are lucky to have all of them in our team. The best part about them is that they all know their game so well. About Hayley, she loves pace. She can whack pacers anywhere, especially her back-foot lofted shot over cover. I just love that. Nat (Sciver-Brunt) is a queen against spin. Her batting looks so effortless, like she’s just spreading butter on bread. And Melie (Amelia), I would call her the perfectionist in finding gaps. She doesn’t hit that hard, but the placement that Melie has, I’d say no other batter has that. It’s a treat watching them all bat.

Q: Yastika Bhatia and Hayley Matthews have been that solid opening stand that MI have had over the last three seasons. Both of them have upped their strike-rates and hitting abilities over the last three seasons. Could you throw light on the discussions you’ve had with them that’s brought about this?

A: Yastika and Hayley are the most successful opening pair for MI right from the first season. They have built a very strong understanding and bond between them. We all can see that in their game. Sometimes, Yastika takes charge and Hayley just rotates the strike. Sometimes, Hayley gives us that great start and we see Yastika taking a back seat and giving her the strike. Whenever we discuss about their partnerships, we only talk about these things. This understanding between batters is very important.

Q: This year, young G Kamalini comes into the MI ranks as a prodigy of sorts and her batting is already being talked about highly. What have you made of her and your first impressions of her?

A: Kammo (Kamalini) may have come into the picture for others just now, but I have been seeing her for the last two years now. We have worked together in the under-19 camps at the NCA. We played a lot of matches together. In the last season, I think she was with me for almost two months. Having her here wasn’t a surprise for me because I know her potential and character really well. Good to have such characters around.

Q: In the larger context of world cricket, Indian batters are not really quite big hitters, something that’s hindered them from matching up to say Australia. How do you believe the gap would be bridged in the near future for India to defeat them in a T20 World Cup?

A: It will happen very soon where we see India winning a T20 World Cup. After the WPL started, we have seen many batters playing big shots now. India has many talented batters like Shafali (Verma) and Richa (Ghosh). I am sure that gap has already been bridged.