SAFF U-17 Women's Championship
Anushka Kumari: The diminutive 14-year-old with a shrewd eye for goal
BS News Agency, Thimphu, Bhutan: Whenever Anushka Kumari puts on an India shirt, she almost always scores. Ten goals in seven international matches so far, and she's yet to turn 15 years old.
On Sunday, she scored her first hat-trick in the span of just 19 minutes against Bhutan in the SAFF U17 Women's Championship. A sizzling free-kick into the roof of the net and two right-footed strikes that nestled into the bottom corner. A special talent is brewing in Indian women's football.
It's been brewing since before she was even a teenager. She started to play at the age of six, like how most kids in India do. "At first, I used to play casually at home. Watching my elder sisters go to play made me want to go out and play as well, so that's how I began," Anushka told.
When she was 11, she joined the Residential Girls Football Centre in Hazaribagh, around 80 kilometres from her hometown Rukka in the Ranchi district of Jharkhand.
"From then on, I kept moving forward. I played in the Sub Junior National Football Championship for Jharkhand. The scouts were present there. I performed my best, and from there, I was selected for the national camp," said Anushka, whose mother is a labourer and runs the household after her father suffered a fractured leg and is unable to work anymore.
And just like that, Anushka found herself wearing the blue of India at the SAFF U16 Women's Championship 2024 in Nepal. She was only 13 years old and emerged as the joint top-scorer of the tournament with five goals, scoring in every single match.
"Playing for India means a lot to me because there are so many players who attend trials from various places, and then only a few of us get selected. After that, it's even more difficult to make it to the playing XI. So being here makes me feel really happy that out of so many players, I could make it through."
But when India lost the final to Bangladesh on penalties, Anushka was left dejected. This wasn't how her maiden foray into international football was supposed to be.