Happy accidents are a real thing. G Kamalini is 16. Until four years ago, she never played Cricket. She was Tamil Nadu’s state-level Skating champion. On one of her days when she didn’t have her skating classes, she decided to accompany her brother to his cricket coaching academy. Not to play, just to watch.

“I started playing cricket because of my brother only. I was around 12-years-old. Anna is a batter and a leg-spinner,” she says in a chat with mumbaiindians.com.

“On that day I just went to watch him. In skating I was getting injured a lot, so I just thought why not play cricket. So I went up to my father and told him I wanted to play cricket. Daddy just couldn’t say no. Next day, he came to the nets and bowled to me. I batted right-handed like my brother and he was shocked to see me bat well. For the next one or two months I just kept batting right-handed,” she said.

Enter happy accident 2.0. All it takes is a brother-sister friendly game in their outhouse for things to change. A literal 180-degree turn in proceedings. She was becoming Kamalini, the batter, as we know and see today.

“One day while playing in the verandah, my brother said, let’s bat left-handed in one game. I batted really well in that game. He went and told Daddy to try me as a leftie batter. So the next day he came to my nets and bowled while I batted left-handed. Left came very naturally to me. That’s how my journey started.”

All early accounts of Kamalini’s cricket will tell you she was an all-rounder. The latest accounts will tell you she keeps wickets. Enter happy accident 3.0.

“Before getting into cricket seriously, I was a bowler. I would keep bowling to my brother. He’d go for practice for 2-3 hours in a day and my dad would ask me to bowl to him. But a lot of the coaches told me to take up wicket-keeping because I was a fun person and I kept encouraging others. I am a little fast as well as well which is why I enjoy 'keeping as well,” she says.

Fast forward to December 2024. Kamalini is at the trials with Mumbai Indians. She’s dealing with a bunch of emotions, from being nervous, overwhelmed, to feeling out of place. All that ends when she puts on her helmet to bat. That’s cricket’s impact on her.

“I was literally scared during my first trials. All the other girls were quite senior and I was the only youngster. On the first day, Jhulan (Goswami) ma’am, Deveika (Palshikaar) ma’am, Kiran (More) sir came to talk to me. It was just amazing. After I finished batting, Jhulan ma’am started talking to me and I was literally thinking, ‘wow this is Jhulan ma’am talking to me’. When I first saw her, I thought she’d be very strict. But after talking to her, I started liking her a lot,” she said.

“After the trials ended, Kiran sir told me to be ready and that Mumbai Indians would be calling me for the second trials. After the second trials, they didn’t tell me that they would pick me or anything like that. They just said, ‘Best of luck, well done’. They then called me for the third trials, but I couldn’t go for that because I had to go for the uncder-19 Asia Cup camp. And then the auction happened (laughs).”

What follows is sheer mayhem. She makes her India under-19 debut against Pakistan, wins the Player of the Match, a day later causes a proper bidding war between the Delhi Capitals and the Mumbai Indians, bags a 1.6cr INR WPL contract with us, and he phone doesn’t stop ringing. The congratulatory calls just won’t end.

She might just be 16, but her talent and her hard work are coming to fruition. This is no happy accident.