Tanisha Singh’s journey from bowling setback to batting excellence

The Delhi team management sent in Tanisha Singh, a top-order batter, to bat at No 7 against Uttarakhand in a Senior Women’s T20 Trophy Tournament match when just 2.2 overs of the 20-over innings were left. With little time remaining, she was under pressure to play big shots from the outset while Delhi were 142 for five, and she got out off the first ball trying to do just that. Although Delhi went on to win their opening match in Pune, the change in her batting order raised questions about the wisdom of sending her so low.

The consolation was that in the next match against Hyderabad on October 29, sanity in the batting order was restored and Singh was sent in to open the innings. The 23-year-old right-hander showed her true potential, smashing a 38-ball century — the joint third-fastest hundred, along with West Indian Deandra Dottin, in all women’s T20 cricket, — as Delhi registered a big win.

In all, Singh went on to hammer a stupendous 119 off just 47 balls (25x4s, 1×6) at an outstanding strike rate of 253 as Delhi broke the record for the highest team total in domestic T20. Delhi erased Goa’s record of 257 for two against Arunachal Pradesh in 2019-20.

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In the third match against Uttar Pradesh, Singh was retained as an opener, and she cracked a brilliant 64 off 46 balls in Delhi’s third straight win. In the fourth encounter, against Pondicherry, Singh’s batting order was changed again and she was sent in at No 4. Changing batting affects a batter’s approach and mindset. She, however, chipped in with a 13-ball 18 and took two wickets as Delhi won, remaining the only unbeaten team in Group D and set to qualify for the next round.

Significantly, Singh, an alumna of Delhi’s Sardar Patel Vidyalaya and a third-year graduation student of Noida’s Amity University, was adjudged Player of the Match in all three matches in which she scored runs, except for the opener.

Red-hot form

Singh has been in fine form recently, whether for India ‘A’ or Delhi. In September, she scored a fine 92 — the top score for India ‘A’ in the first innings — as they defeated Australia ‘A’ in the one-off unofficial Test in Mohali. She has carried that form into the Senior Women’s T20 Trophy, being played in Pune.

Earlier in the one-day series against Australia ‘A’ in September, Singh totalled 120 runs in three matches. This tally included a half-century in a winning cause. In July, while representing India ‘A’, she hit a fine 58 against England ‘A’ in the third and final one-dayer in Taunton, England. Only her opening partner, Priya Punia, scored more runs (61).

In the 2026 Delhi Premier League, she finished third in the top scorers’ list with 206 runs, while also bagging three wickets for 2025 champions South Delhi Superstarz. Her team also reached the 2026 final, eventually losing to North Delhi Strikers in September.

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‘Good learner’

Singh’s coach Ajay Verma credits her success to her resolve to overcome adversity. “She is a good learner. I have advised her not to let success go to her head and carry failures gamely on the shoulders. Our goal is to see her represent India one day,” Verma, a former India under-19 cricketer, told Patriot.

Verma has been coaching Singh for over nine years at his RP Cricket Academy at Gargi College in South Delhi. He has seen the ups and downs, including her unsettled batting position for Delhi, that Singh has gone through in her fledgling career.

While Singh has been playing as an opener for India ‘A’ and at times for Delhi, her batting position has been under constant change in the Delhi teams.

“If she gets set at the crease, she goes on to play a long innings. She doesn’t throw away her wicket. So, I would say that for Delhi, the ideal position for her is No 3,” he said.

Also, Singh doesn’t let disappointments affect her for long. This was evident when she scored a whirlwind century against Hyderabad, a day after going unsold at the Women’s Premier League (WPL) auction, despite her form.

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Biggest turning point

Singh has been an effective all-rounder, contributing with both bat and ball. In addition to her batting, she has been bowling her off-spinners to good effect for Delhi and other teams. Now, however, her forte is batting. How and why did the change come about?

The turning point came when Singh was called for chucking during the 2019-20 season when she was a member of the Delhi Under-16 team. Verma calls it a turbulent phase in her career – something that bothered him as well.

“It was a difficult period for her. I worked with her in correcting her bowling action, and after a while she was cleared to bowl again,” he said. Singh has since been bowling for India ‘A’, Delhi and her DPL franchise, though probably not as much as she did earlier. On November 2, her two wickets against Pondicherry helped her get her third successive Player of the Match award.

After Singh was called for chucking, Verma worked on her bowling action at his academy for about two months before sending her to Chennai’s Sri Ramachandra Medical University, an International Cricket Council-accredited centre for testing suspected bowling actions. Singh was cleared to everyone’s relief.

“We worked on her bowling action, making videos at every step, even as she represented her club locally. I would then send the videos of her progress to experts, in my personal capacity, to get their point of view and ensure that when she went to Chennai, her action was clean. Finally, the faculty of experts at Sri Ramachandra Medical University cleared her action,” recalled Verma. “After being cleared, she started from scratch. And, I now expect more from her bowling.”

Singh’s batting conundrum for Delhi, however, remains unresolved. “Until the chucking incident, she was a middle-order batter, coming at No 2 for RP Cricket Academy. Now she also plays as an opener,” he said, possibly referring to the uncertainty in her batting order that might be unsettling for her.