Hope to become mainstay in Indian team: Kamalini

CHENNAI: Seventeen years old and already ticking off boxes, for which others wait years for. 2025 was a milestone-packed year for Tamil Nadu wicketkeeper-batter G Kamalini. An Under-19 World Cup winner and a Women’s Premier League champion, Kamalini has now broken into the senior set-up, earning her maiden call-up for the T20I series against Sri Lanka, starting Sunday.

Kamalini felt it had been a truly special and rewarding year, the culmination of years of effort from her and her family. The decision to move from Madurai to Chennai to chase her passion is paying off. It is all the more meaningful, given the health struggles her father has endured while supporting her in the journey.


“It’s a dream come true moment; I’m very happy and emotional. It feels like a reward for all the hard work that has gone in over the last five to six years. All the struggles my dad went through, the health issues and everything, was for this thing: to play for India. When the call-up came, there were a lot of emotions. He has made countless sacrifices and even now, despite his health issues, he continues to support me. Me getting here has happened with all the support from my dad, mom, and elder brother,” Kamalini said on the sidelines of the Tamil Nadu Sports Conclave 2.0, on Tuesday.

The swaggy teenager was a vital cog in TN’s wheel in the BCCI Women’s Under-23 T20 Trophy, amassing 275 runs in six matches at a strike rate of 138.88 to help her side reach the quarterfinals. Kamalini said she has played a lot of T20 games this year, understands the importance of power hitting in the format, and is eager to put that skill to use against Sri Lanka.

“I have been practising a lot on power hitting. Whether it is opening the batting or playing in the middle-order, you have to play according to the situation, and that is what I am focusing on. I want to win a lot of matches for the Indian team and become a mainstay,” she said.

Kamalini has been putting in the hard yards behind the stumps as well. “Keeping is not at all easy. Keeping requires more training than batting. Even if you miss one ball, things could go wrong. So, I work on it every day; If I work for three hours on batting, I spend three hours on keeping as well,” Kamalini said.