Mid-Day Anniversary: Jemi’s Jamming It, India’s Winning It!

Jemimah Rodrigues. Pics/Jemimah’s Instagram

Mumbai-based Team India batter Jemimah Rodrigues, 25, is a personality with multiple traits. As a kid, she began wielding her hockey stick successfully at inter-school competitions and state-level meets before switching it for another piece of wood, a cricket bat, again successfully at that. There's another piece of wood that she melodiously switches to, and that's her guitar, which has ensured this Indian women's cricket team are stringing together their success story.

Jemimah is clearly the flag-bearer of keeping things cool in Indian women's cricket, while sweating and even shedding a few tears in between.

From breaking down emotionally after playing the "innings of a lifetime" - an unbeaten 134-ball 127 - as the hosts and eventual world champions conquered the mighty Australians in the 2025 ICC Women's ODI World Cup semi-final at Navi Mumbai, to jumping with joy after India's 270-run win over England in the first ever women's Test in 142 years at the iconic Lord's, Jemimah has had some serious fun en route. And that's the reason, in this interview with mid-day, she insists that off-field aspects like team dinners, team bonding activities, karaoke nights, and even social media reel-making are crucial for on-field success.

Edited excerpts from the interview

Could you tell us what this Indian team does to chill?
We do have quite a few team dinners usually, and that's when it depends on what the theme is. So, we either just go out to a nice place and talk or there are some fun games arranged there and we play and do this fun stuff which definitely helps the team bond better. Also, sometimes we just go out, like recently what we did as a team bonding thing was we went out to play Paintball. Battling around that Paintball pitch was so much fun.

We know you are brilliant at the guitar. So how do you guys plan these jam sessions? Is it you who initiates them and are your teammates always ready to sing along?
Usually, I bring my guitar along for say maybe a long bus journey. But sometimes it's just very spontaneous or maybe while we're having a team dinner and if there's something like a karaoke or maybe if I'm asked to play the guitar, I go for it.

Jemimah with Smriti Mandhana

Tell us about the fun reels you and your teammates make on social media.
Every player has her own social media platform so they have their own way of putting their stuff out there. If we do it as a team, it's always spontaneous, so nobody plans anything. We find something cool, something funny, and we end up saying, ‘Hey guys, do you want to do this?' and that's how we simply come together and do it.

Coach Amol Muzumdar is known to be quite the serious type. What do you guys do when you have to make him laugh or lighten the atmosphere around him?
I think people generally tend to assume that Amol sir is quite the serious type, but he actually loves having fun. In fact, he's the one who is super-enthu when it comes to team bonding sessions and getting the team together. He enjoys his team bonding sessions and loves it when everyone is just having fun and having a good time.

International cricket comes with its fair share of pressures and more so at a World Cup or at your recent Test at Lord's. How do you guys strike that balance between work and play?
While playing international cricket, one thing's for sure, there's always going to be pressure. But you've got to enjoy the pressure because what's the fun if there's no pressure? So, even as a team, we try and embrace pressure, enjoy it, have some fun in between, it's important to have that balance between being too focused and too serious, or having too much fun as well. So, somewhere in between, you strike that balance and that's what comes with being a professional cricketer. You know how and when to strike that balance and you know how to enjoy your cricket and the pressure along with it.

Jemimah with Arundhati Reddy (left) and Shreyanka Patil (right)

Being someone who values all formats of the game, what did this Lord's Test win mean to you?
Just to realise, for a young girl, to be a part of such a historic Test which is being played at Lord's after 140-odd years, felt extremely special. It was way beyond whatever I could've ever dreamt of or asked for. Irrespective of the result - if you just keep the result aside for some time - just to know that you're a part of history, a part of a historic event at Lord's, I mean, who gets to play a Test match at Lord's and win it too? So, just imagining it was nice, and winning it feels great. I will always hold that Test match close to my heart.

For a young girl like you, coming from suburban Mumbai, dreaming big and winning the World Cup title and now achieving Test success at the iconic Lord's, what's your message to India's young girls?
Everything starts with a dream. My message to India's young girls is dream big, because the best part about dreams is that there's no limit. So, the best thing they can do is just dream as much as possible, and then go out there and do whatever it takes to achieve that dream. Also, one last thing, I'd like to advise everyone that while chasing your own dreams, help someone else achieve theirs because, trust me, there's no bigger satisfaction in life than that!

127 not out
Jemimah's match-winning score against Australia in the 2025 ICC Women's ODI World Cup semi-final at Navi Mumbai