Can you imagine someone attaining international fame in sports, who never even thought of it ?. Ruchi Shetty is one such talent you will find. She became the first ever player from Mumbai Strikers SC to represent India at the Asian 7s Series which is being held at Sri Lanka. A student from St Mary’s Convent High School, she comes across as a bubbly yet humble girl and has supreme talent as a sportswoman.

Ruchi’s journey began in standard six where she only began running and had no direction in sport whatsoever. The following year, she enrolled in the sports training program conducted by Mumbai Strikers Sports Club and things changed there onwards. She enjoyed running about and taking part in the fun activities that were being organised. A few months into the program she expressed her interest in basketball, where she did extremely well. A sound athlete that she is, she grasped the technical aspects of the game quickly and was one of the best players in the St Marys Basketball team.

Few years later, Mumbai Strikers introduced the sport of Touch Rugby in the sports program and it caught her interest as it was an extremely quick and demanding sport. Ruchi loves challenges and hence her first tryst with touch rugby was in standard eight where she took part in the first touch rugby interschool tournament. On debut, the school managed to touch the semi final and the journey ended. In the following year, things were much better as they clinched the title for the first time ever and what is more breath taking is that they won it in all age categories. Ruchi got involved in contact rugby for the first time when she was promoted to standard ten. Considering her academic status, it was a risk to play a sport that could injure her anywhere at anytime. But that did not stop her from taking a decision and pursue the sport. She practised at the Bombay Gymkhana and in July 2014 she made her national debut for Maharashtra in contact rugby at a tournament held in Odisha. In the same year, she played for the U-18 Maharashtra squad and was listed in the playing 7. An icing on the cake some may call it, she was also the captain of that team. In 2015, she represented Maharashtra again at the 35th National Games that were held in Kerala where they ended grabbing the silver medal. She represented the U18 squad twice after this in different tournaments where they finished third place in 2015 and second place in 2016. She was a part of the Mumbai Suburbs squad that won the State Championship in 2016. Ruchi got the attention of the Indian Camp but could not make it to the team. It was a let down, but for someone as mature as her, this was not the end. However, there was another India camp announced in February this year, but Ruchi’s hopes were dashed as she had to attend to her HSC exams.

After scoring a massive 95% in her HSC exams, things changed for good as she attended the most recent India camp where she was chosen to represent India at the Asian 7s series in Sri Lanka. This is the third leg of the tournament and India missed out on the first two legs. India will face Division One teams in this tournament and Ruchi is ready for immense exposure in the sport of Rugby at the world level. India will be grouped along with Japan, South Korea and Thailand. The other countries participating are Hong Kong, Singapore and home team Sri Lanka.

Mumbai Strikers Sports Club is proud of Ruchi and wish her nothing but the best in the tournament. All the best to Team India as well!