Mind The Gap: How Jemimah Rodrigues found her groove

Not long ago, Jemimah Rodrigues found herself at the centre of an online vilification campaign — trolled and threatened over her faith. Today, she stands at the heart of India’s World Cup triumph, the most celebrated face of the team on social media.

After India lifted the ICC Women’s World Cup, its players gained new followers — but none more than Jemimah. She added nearly 13 lakh followers on Instagram and remains the most searched woman cricketer on Google Trends. The surge wasn’t limited to her alone: following the historic win, Smriti Mandhana gained around 5 lakh followers, while captain Harmanpreet Kaur added about 2 lakh.

The top five women cricketers in terms of online popularity were Jemimah Rodrigues, Smriti Mandhana, Harmanpreet Kaur, Shafali Verma, and Radha Yadav, according to a social media analysis by India Today’s OSINT team.