‘Medium pacers are alive because of ice baths’: The method behind Shikha Pandey’s longevity

New Delhi, Sep 14 (SocialNews.XYZ) Ask Shikha Pandey how she is still running in and bowling fast at this stage of her career, and she does not talk about desire, or hunger, or any of the usual words. Instead, Shikha, 37, talks about recovery protocols and carrying her own tools wherever she gets to play in leagues worldwide, including in the ongoing Women’s Caribbean Premier League (WCPL) and before she starts, she issues a warning.

"Okay. I'll be a science geek now! I have my own compression boots that I travel with and spend a lot of time on mobility and stretches. We've been very fortunate. We have the ice baths that are available. Medium pacers literally thrive on ice baths and are alive because of ice baths.

“So, that as well and we have a huge recovery protocol and massages and things like that. I have been very lucky to be in a franchise like TKR. Yes, we are really taken care of in that regard," Shikha told IANS in a select virtual interaction organised by FanCode, the official broadcaster of WCPL in India.

Her own interest in the science behind an athlete's life in the later years has been crucial to a career that is still going strong despite last playing for India in 2023 Women’s T20 World Cup. It’s this reason why the subject of ageing fast bowlers, when it came up in the Trinbago Knight Riders (TKR) dugout, did not trouble her much. Marizanne Kapp was padded up and waiting to bat. Biju George, the former India women’s fielding coach currently in the TKR set-up, raised it, and the bench laughed.

"We said, it's difficult as you get older as a pacer to be bowling with the same intensity. But I guess with us, we are mature enough and we have a really good understanding of our body and how it works. So, that has helped a lot. Also, the skill isn't going to go anywhere. It's just about keeping fit.

“I mean, probably till the time I score runs, and take wickets, I will be playing cricket and I'm really enjoying my cricket right now. I've been very fortunate and lucky that I have my own recovery equipment which I travel with here in TKR.

“We have some amazing people, our physio, TJ, and our trainer, Jamie, who also doubles up as the massage therapist. Both of them are amazing. So, being really taken good care of, have to see to our own. So, yes, it's really good - probably it's also about the stress part of it. The lesser stressed you are, the better you do," she added.

The same instinct governs how Shikha, who has picked five wickets so far in 2026 WCPL, prepares to bowl. A slow surface in the Caribbean is not something she discovers on arrival – instead, she has already studied about its nature, with the answers worked out before the first net session.

"I guess I'm someone who likes to meticulously prep for any tournament that I'm going to be playing at. So, on pitches that are going to be slightly on the slower side, which is what happens here in West Indies, you work on a lot of slower balls and probably deliveries that do not depend on the pitch, yorkers, and things like that.

"Every league that you play in challenges you with respect to the surfaces that you are going to be bowling on, predominantly me being a pace bowler. So, I like to go ahead and do a little bit of research on that part or to see a little vision videos to prepare and to get ready for the tournament," she said.

The mental side gets the same treatment from Shikha, a retired squadron leader of the Indian Air Force. Be it featuring in the Women’s Big Bash League in Australia, the Super Smash in New Zealand and now plying her trade in WCPL, an association which began in 2024, she relishes the challenges of being a globe-trotting cricketer.

"I really love being challenged. In WBBL, it was about probably bowling the surge overs and over here as well, to be bowling in the difficult phases of the tournament. I somehow still enjoy doing it and helps me in terms of, I've always harped upon the more challenging situation that you put yourself in.

“You have this memory bank and which keeps you then really in a good state for if you have to be in the same situation again. I firmly believe that if you've played these high intensity pressure games, that really helps you in situations when you're put up again in them.

"So, that's why experience probably matters, and I'm really happy to be playing cricket, honestly. Just to add, also the environment and the people - it's entirely different the way people are here in Caribbean and probably in New Zealand or Australia. So, I've really enjoyed to be able to understand and have memories and friendships with everyone that I've played cricket with," she elaborated.

The memory bank is a useful idea precisely because there is nothing mystical about it, even as Shikha’s analytical streak found another outlet via a commentary assignment for JioStar in their studio during the 2026 Women’s T20 World Cup. "I had been asked before and it's been three years since I was being asked if I wanted to do it. I just kind of did it because it was in the offseason and thought I still had a lot of time.

“Playing career is still on the mind, but it was just about I wanted to have a feel of how that environment is. I love talking cricket and I love cricket on the whole. So it was really nice to be doing it alongside some really great people who also have the same interest."

Shikha has strong views on how attacks should be built, too, and they are not the conventional ones. Around her in the TKR bowling group is a set of young Caribbean seamers, two of whom she singled out for praise before pushing back on the idea that conditions should dictate selection.

"They have really good medium paces in our team. It's like we have (Jannillea) Glasgow and (Jahzara) Claxton, who's another U19 superstar, and can hit the long ball. It's the same thing with Glasgow to be a lefty. Both of them being lefty and right-arm medium pacers - it's gold dust.

“I would say that in any country, the pace bowling resources are always available. It's just about being able to use it properly and I am not a firm believer of the fact that you choose a team depending upon conditions. I think if your main bowlers are pacers, they'll probably be able to bowl anywhere."

The Indian contingent in the league has grown considerably since her first season with the franchise, when she and Jemimah Rodrigues were the only two players from the country. Apart from Pandey, Yastika Bhatia is with her at TKR, while Barbados Tridents have Pooja Vastrakar, Harleen Deol and Kiran Navgire, which means there’s ample room for chit-chats in Hindi.

"Actually, Pooja is a superstar and doesn't really require any input from me. The other day, I was talking to Pooja when we met and then she goes about how the foreign players start hitting you from ball one, which is probably something that differs from how we traditionally play as Indians. So, that's really nice and keeps people in a good state.

"I mean, I'm pretty sure Pooja has been challenged in that way and when she comes in next to bowl, she'll be ready for it. Firstly, I'm really happy that so many of the Indians have come down here to play. It used to be the first year that I played for TKR, it was just me and Jemi. But now we can probably just get to the lobby and speak to someone who speaks Hindi.

"It's really nice because we Indians on the whole are known to be really hardworking and people who are really good at crafting the skills. I'm really excited for everyone who's here from India to be doing well, because then it opens up another opportunity for you to be playing competitive cricket just outside of the domestic cricket and in case someone wants to make a comeback, it really helps. Hopefully, it really helps them to put up good performances and get noticed."

All of this method, she said, comes from a conclusion she reached about herself a long time ago. Asked how she would like to be remembered, Shikha did not reach out for a statistic. "I guess I would have said to be remembered as a good teammate, not a good athlete. I was never very talented. I have had to put in a lot of hard work and probably if you're ready to struggle, which I was, I think you can go ahead and do things in life.

“Yes, I would always take pride in being the hardest worker in the side or in the dressing room. Like I said, because I was not gifted naturally and I had that understanding pretty early in my life. So, if you know that, yes, you have to put in the work, it really helps and like I said, I'm not a very materialistic person.

"I look for if even a single girl who would come out to watch the game yesterday or day before got inspired by watching us and me play, that is what I take cricket for. So, just to be able to inspire someone new to take up the sport would be a really huge achievement for me," she concluded.

Source: IANS