Home » Interview » Exclusive: ‘Natural athlete’ Amanjot Kaur worked harder than anyone, shares her childhood coach
Exclusive: ‘Natural athlete’ Amanjot Kaur worked harder than anyone, shares her childhood coach
In an exclusive interview with OTTplay, Amanjot Kaur's childhood coach Nagesh Gupta shared insights into Amanjot's journey from joining his academy at 15 to becoming a confident all-rounder.
Nov 07, 2025
Amanjot Kaur's childhood coach shared her journey in an exclusive interview with OTTplay. Image | @ImTanujSingh on X
Did she hold onto that? Everyone was on their feet and tensed as Amanjot Kaur, the Indian Women’s Cricket team all-rounder, held onto that pivotal catch of South Africa Women's captain Laura Woolvardt during the ICC Women’s World Cup 2025 final in Navi Mumbai. That catch and dismissal eventually helped India lift their maiden ICC Women’s World Cup title, marking a potential turning point for Indian Women’s Cricket. To understand the journey behind this moment, Nagesh Gupta, the childhood coach of Amanjot Kaur, shared the all-rounder’s story exclusively with OTTplay after her incredible achievement.
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How did everything start for Amanjot?
In India, being an athlete is always challenging, and even more so for women. For Amanjot, these challenges were no different, setting the stage for her journey.
In 2016, Amanjot enrolled at the Cricket With Nagesh Academy in Zirakpur, Punjab, at age 15. She appeared fitter and stronger than most girls her age. Nagesh recalls, "When she came to me, she looked like a natural athlete. This quality is invaluable when training someone to be a cricketer. She was quicker and fitter than most 15-year-old girls," he shared with OTTplay.
It was her natural athletic build that helped push Nagesh to work on her bowling skills, which demand a more athletic build. But, soon, he noticed that Amanjot was equally capable in batting and started working on her batting skills.
“Since Aman (that is how Nagesh calls Amanjot) was a really natural athlete, we started with her bowling skills and then worked on her batting to make her a complete all-rounder,” Nagesh shared.
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Fielding came before batting and bowling
Like most of the cricket pundits always shared that for India to do well in ICC Women’s tournaments, they will have to reach the standard of an Australian or England team as a fielding unit. And, in the ICC Women’s World Cup 2025, India were able to achieve that.
Dives all around the field, catches under pressure, saves on the boundary line, and even an important run-out we saw by Amanjot to dismiss Tazmin Brits - we saw everything from Women in Blue.
Coaches like Nagesh always believed that for anyone to play for India, you need to be good in all departments. And that is why he always worked first on fielding before anything else. “If you are not good as a fielder, you will not be successful at that level. Amanjot used to work hours on her fielding, and the results you saw in the whole tournament,” Nagesh expressed.
Confidence is the most important thing
After the first match, where Amanjot’s fifty brought India back into the game after a failure from the top order, she shared that Indian fans should not have worried since she was there to bat for India. Was Amanjot that confident from the start?
“Yes, she was like that only,” Nagesh answered.
“From the start, she had one goal - that was to play for India, and she was confident that she would be able to achieve that. Even before the first match, I was nervous since this would be her first mega event, but she was like cool and calm and treated every match like any other match.”
This is just the start for Women’s cricket in India
Like Indian captain Harmanpreet Kaur shared after the final, that this is just the start, and they do not want to stop. The Women in Blue will now have to win more ICC tournaments to stamp their authority.
With more and more investments coming through the Women’s Premier League (WPL), even Nagesh believes this triumph will take Indian Women’s Cricket to a newer level.
“This is just the start. We have the T20 World Cup coming up, the ICC Champions Trophy in 2027 in Sri Lanka - we will have to do well in those tournaments, and then only we will be able to become a powerhouse,” Nagesh manifested.
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