Shikha Pandey

Squadron Leader Shikha Pandey (born 12 May 1989) is an Indian cricketer and former officer in the Indian Air Force. She plays for the national cricket team as a right-arm medium pacer and middle-order batter, and was an IAF air traffic control officer. In August of the same year, she made her One Day International (ODI) and Test debuts against England at Wormsley and Scarborough, respectively.

Early life Pandey did her schooling under the Central Board of Secondary Education, India. At the age of 15, she became the first player affiliated with state board to represent India. Within months of this affiliation and getting introduced into the formal set-up, Surekha Bhandare, former Mumbai player and selector, saw her playing and believed that Pandey had all the markings of a future India player. "The raw talent in her was hard to go unnotice [sic]," Bhandare was quoted as stating. At the time of the 2020 ICC Women's T20 World Cup, she held the rank of Squadron Leader. In the inter-state two-day tournament, Rani Jhansi Trophy, she picked up a four-wicket haul. This was also her Goa senior women's debut. Thirushi Kamini, then already an Indian international, was her first wicket which was a caught-and-bowled. What fast-tracked her selection into the zonal squad the same season was her scoring three half-centuries for the Goa Under-19 side.

After Dilip Sardesai, Pandey is the first player from Goa to play for any Indian national team. She is also the first Goa Cricket Association affiliated cricketer to play international level cricket for India. After the T20 World Cup, she played one-off Test match and 2 ODI matches against England. She was instrumental in India's win against South Africa on 26 November 2014. She took 3 wickets and scored 59 runs.

Pandey was part of the Indian team to reach the final of the 2017 Women's Cricket World Cup where the team lost to England by nine runs. In January 2020, she was named in India's squad for the 2020 ICC Women's T20 World Cup in Australia. In May 2021, she was named in India's Test squad for their one-off match against the England women's cricket team.

Personal life The Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal B.S. Dhanoa felicitating the then Flt. Lt. Shikha Pandey in New Delhi on 1 August 2017 Pandey's nickname is "Shikhipedia", an allusion to her self-confessed status as a "cricket geek".