A few posters adorn the wall of Happy Kumari‘s room: “2024 – Rajasthan debut”, “2026 – Play WPL”, “2027 – I want to play for India”. She had written down her goals in bold and stuck them.

On a November afternoon in Jaipur, Happy let out a shriek with some of her Rajasthan team-mates. She had just seen Gujarat Giants (GG) lift the paddle for her at the WPL 2026 auction and did not wait to see the amount she was picked for, or if there were any further bids. About 200 km away in Jhunjhunu, her coach Ajay Kumar was also watching the auction unfold with his wife and sank to his knees. He did not know what to feel, and only spoke to Happy the next day. Her neighbourhood in Jhunjhunu also celebrated with fireworks and sweets, and her family later sent her videos of it.

“As soon as GG raised the paddle, I was elated that I will be playing the WPL and getting to learn something new,” Happy, the 18-year-old, tells ESPNcricinfo. “I spoke to my coach only the next day, he was very emotional. I owe it to him; I was a zero the day I went to him but now I was getting better and was picked for the WPL.”

Ajay was coaching at the JIVEM Academy in Jhunjhunu when Happy came to him, and soon both of them moved to the SS Mody Cricket Academy where they train even now. He aspired to be a cricketer and played the Colvin Shield, the club-cricket tournament organised by the Rajasthan Cricket Association, but then became a coach with Happy his first female player.

“For 15 minutes after Happy got picked, I couldn’t express anything,” Ajay, 38, recalls. “I hugged my wife and cried, my emotions took over me. Once I couldn’t make the state team as a player, I wanted to coach other players. So once Happy reached the WPL, I couldn’t understand what to feel. A lot of people called me that day, but I did not pick up any calls.”

Happy started playing cricket in 2021 when she was 14. In three years, she rose through the ranks, played age-group cricket and made her senior debut for Rajasthan in 2024-25. She was also part of the extended group of India players in the lead up to the 2025 Under-19 Women’s T20 World Cup. It has been a fairly swift rise for Happy, but not without its own set of challenges.

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Happy was a 100m and 200m sprinter before the pandemic. Once the second wave subsided, her father, who worked in an army canteen in Jhunjhunu, and her grandfather, a retired army major, persuaded her to try something different and enrolled her for cricket coaching under Ajay. Happy did not know a thing about the sport but as she entered the ground, she saw a lot of boys training.

“I was hesitant to play with so many boys. I told my father, ‘Bass dekh liya, ab ghar chalte hai (okay, we have had a look, now let’s go home)’,” Happy says. “But my father took me in, made me meet Ajay Kumar, who became my coach. If he would not have been my coach, I would not have played cricket professionally.”

Ajay understood Happy’s reluctance, and urged her to give it some time. In the meanwhile, he took special classes for the boys and taught them inclusive behaviour. “I always had disciplined students in my academy,” he says. “I told them that everyone here is a cricketer, not a boy or a girl. Slowly, that eased Happy in. She started to feel confident and did not think that she wouldn’t be able to do well against boys.”

A smiling Happy Kumari during one of her training sessions Ajay Kumar

Happy concurs: “Ajay sir created an atmosphere where I did not feel left out. I used to get a lot of batting and bowling. He trained me personally. I soon realised that there is nothing to fear and I could also play cricket. It also helped that I was improving. There were no negatives to dissuade me and slowly, I developed interest.”

Ajay learnt of her athletic background – she could outrun some of the boys at the academy – and had an inkling that she could develop into a good bowler. He worked on shaping her into a fast bowler who can bat. It was easier said than done, given her little knowledge on the nuances of the game.

“My coach’s theory was that if you want to be different, you need to have something different”

Happy Kumari on Ajay Kumar

“I taught her the bowling action but we had to work a lot on getting the flow right,” Ajay says. “She used to run in fast, stop at the bowling crease, and then chuck at a very good pace. Her bowling and sprint were not in sync. The one quality that I really admire in her is her relentlessness. If she takes interest in something aur apna mann laga de na (and puts her mind into it), she leaves no stone unturned to perfect it. That is how she worked on her bowling too.”

Happy’s mornings would start at 4am for throwdown and knocking drills. The sound of bat hitting ball in that hour of the day would irk the neighbours. Then she would leave for school at 6am. A short nap after school, and she would be back training with Ajay, which ended late evening. He would pick her up and drop her back home since he did not want her to travel alone. Happy then used to study a little and then sleep. She scored 92% in her class 10 exams.

Summers in Rajasthan can be unforgiving on the seasoned; Happy was just a teenager. While people would try not to venture outdoors in the afternoons from March to May, Happy and her coach did spot-bowling drills after her school ended. “Log kehte the hum pagal hai, kya matlab hai yeh sab karne ka (People used to tell us we are insane; what is the need to do all of this). But who am I to dissuade Happy from training? From not knowing a thing about over-arm bowling to reach where she has in four years is all down to that hard work.”

Happy was also taught the importance of bowling fast in the women’s game. There are not too many who bowl in the high 110s. Ajay claims Happy is among the five fastest female fast bowlers in India.

“I had power in my arms, so my coach told me to just bowl fast,” Happy says. “He made me understand the benefits of fast bowling. Generally, girls are taught to develop their lines and lengths, and are told not to run behind speed. But my coach’s theory was that if you want to be different, you need to have something different.

Happy Kumari has been rubbing shoulders with the world’s best cricketers in the WPL BCCI

“We first worked on my speeds and he said we can get the lines and lengths right in five-six months. But if you will not work on your speeds, it will be in your muscle memory that mujhse isse zyaada tez nai hoga (I won’t be able to bowl faster than this).”

The other thing that Ajay did to help Happy gel with the boys was make her captain for local club tournaments, which she played alongside the boys. That helped her open up, develop tactically and gain leadership skills. She was appointed the captain of Rajasthan’s Under-19 team in 2024-25, was part of the Under-19 Women’s T20 Challenger Trophy with Team D and made her senior state debut in the season. In June 2025, she was also called up for the Emerging Women’s Tournament at the BCCI Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Bengaluru. Apart from bowling fast, Happy also bats in the middle order for Rajasthan.

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Before WPL 2025, Happy got a call from Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) to attend trials. She also got calls from the other teams. While she went for most of them, she couldn’t attend GG’s trials in person. “I was injured at the time Gujarat called me, and VVS Laxman sir told me it is not necessary to go now,” Happy says. “I was recovering well but in CoE, they have targeted players, who they closely monitor. So they disallowed me. So I sent some of my bowling videos to GG and they also followed me during the domestic season.”

Happy’s dedication and hard work has been a constant ally, Ajay says. “She did not have anything different. They say some people have God’s gift; I wouldn’t say that for her. But her ability to just listen, learn and apply is what has worked for her. Her success – there is still more to come – is because of her undeterred efforts, like spot-bowling at 2pm and things like that.”

Jhunjhunu is famous for the number of people serving the Indian Army and defence forces. Now, it is being known as the cradle that developed one of India’s fastest bowlers in women’s cricket, all thanks to Happy’s pursuits.