Pooja Vastrakar remembers sitting with Radha Yadav and Smriti Mandhana on the eve of the WPL 2026 final. It was her first high-profile tournament in close to 15 months. She was making a comeback from shoulder surgery, but her return had been delayed further by a hamstring injury.
Vastrakar had butterflies in her stomach, but her two Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) and India team-mates were pretty relaxed. Only a few months earlier, they had been part of something much bigger and more daunting: India's maiden ODI World Cup win. Vastrakar had missed that tournament because her recovery from shoulder surgery took longer than expected.
The fast-bowling allrounder had a tear in her right shoulder, and she was managing it for close to 18 months with injections after her doctors advised that surgery wasn't immediately necessary. But months after India's league-stage exit at the Women's T20 World Cup in 2024, the pain worsened. She had already taken four injections in a year, and eventually underwent surgery in March 2025. Typically, recovery takes six to eight months, but took longer for Vastrakar.
"We had planned the surgery in a way that I would have had eight months to recover, but that didn't happen because even after eight months, I hadn't got my range back," Vastrakar told ESPNcricinfo on the sidelines of the Madhya Pradesh Women's T20 League. "After being in these situations so many times, it doesn't bother you anymore. You know how to deal with it.
"I would have felt bad if I hadn't done things the right way. But I know that I worked honestly and hard every single day, every single night. So I didn't feel bad about not being a part of [the ODI World Cup], and obviously, the team did so well."
Vastrakar is no stranger to injuries. Much before her India debut, she underwent a right-knee ACL surgery in 2017. In 2018, she had surgery on her left knee, which made her miss that year's T20 World Cup. But this shoulder injury kept her sidelined longer than any previous setback, forcing her to miss both the ODI World Cup last year and the ongoing T20 World Cup.
"A sportsperson gets used to all these things, and minor niggles keep happening," she said. "So it doesn't seem like a big deal. There is a lot to learn because the injury phase teaches us a lot about our body. And small things that we don't prioritise initially - like recovery, whether it's a pool session, ice bath, or diet - it brings a lot of improvement to the game.
"I achieved my career's best speed of 120kph after an injury. So from all those things, I learned so much. When a player goes through such a long [rehab] phase, people say that you gain knowledge equivalent to a physio or a trainer. So, it's actually quite good for self-growth."
Time away from the game tested Vastrakar. The frustration mounted, but being at the BCCI Centre of Excellence (CoE) meant help was always available, whether from support staff or fellow India cricketers.
"I feel god has created humans in a wonderful way - if something happens repeatedly in our life, we search for solutions and eventually find answers ourselves," Vastrakar said. "When you are at a place like the CoE, there are world-class bowlers like Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah, highly qualified doctors, physiotherapists and trainers. When you converse with them, you learn a lot and mature. They tell us that bowling isn't even made for the human body. You transfer three or four times your body weight onto your left leg.
"I had a lot of conversations with Boom bhai [Bumrah] during that period. He explained, 'If I look at my career, many similar things happened to me too. For a long time I have also been out, doing rehab for six months. Then I had surgery, so a year-and-a-half went into all this.' He basically just said these things will keep happening; all you can do is focus on your process and whatever is in your control.
"It's true that during such phases, we either dwell on the past or worry about the future. We forget to enjoy the present. And the present is what's in our hands, the process is in our hands. And that very process becomes a huge part of success."
Despite having no match time behind her, RCB staved off bids from UP Warriorz to select Vastrakar at the auction. Being surrounded by familiar faces such as Mandhana, Radha, Shreyanka Patil and Arundhati Reddy helped ease her return, even as she continued recovering from the hamstring niggle she picked up shortly after receiving her return-to-play clearance from the CoE.
She was eventually cleared to play as a batter only and featured in RCB's final league game. She was also set to play the final, which made her a little nervous.
"In the meeting before the final, Radha asked me how I was feeling. I had butterflies in my stomach but she didn't feel much. She was like, 'In the World Cup, the pressure was even more than this, what can I say!' Even Smriti said, 'I didn't realise how I played a maiden over [in the final against Marizanne Kapp]!' We were also wondering how Smriti Mandhana, whose strike rate is usually over 100, played a maiden over. She said she just couldn't understand because there was so much pressure in the World Cup. Compared to that, this WPL final didn't feel like any pressure at all. So you can imagine the scale of what the girls achieved."
Vastrakar wasn't needed to bat in either of her two WPL 2026 games. But she showcased her batting prowess in the Madhya Pradesh Women's T20 League, where she finished fifth on the run charts. Her 122 runs in five games came at a strike rate of 150.62, the highest among the competition's top 15 run-getters. She bowled only three overs in the final while captaining Chambal Ghariyals to the title.
"There aren't too many batters in the state leagues. So even if my main role is power-hitting in the last ten overs, things are a little different in the domestic circuit. My job here is to bat in the middle order, as long as possible and take charge in the last two-three overs.
"With the ball, there are so many seamers and spinners who have worked hard for years to get to this platform. My motto is to give them a chance first, because even if I don't bowl, I am already playing for the Madhya Pradesh senior team and in the WPL."
Vastrakar is not someone who plans too far ahead. She prefers to go with the flow. But she is certain about one thing: an India comeback.
"I am young. I don't want to overthink. I want to just work hard, and the rest will follow. I have faith that I will bounce back."
