Amanjot takes fondly to challenges. Having started playing domestic cricket for Punjab in 2017-18, she switched to Chandigarh for a couple of seasons from 2019-20 in search of more game time. In each of her two seasons there, she was among the runs even while captaining Chandigarh and chipping in with the ball. She was assured of a spot in the XI and was showing off her wares.

And so, in her first international game, Amanjot was tasked with preventing India from getting bowled out cheaply. Understandably, she took her time to get the measure of it all and was on 7 off 13 balls at one stage. She had missed taking toll on a free hit, but she seemed unfazed. She bided her time, and then cashed in.

Seamer Ayabonga Khaka was greeted in her third over with two marvelously timed cover drives. On both occasions, Khaka fed Amanjot full balls in her favoured area - outside off - for her to find the gap through the ring there. She then chipped one over fast bowler Marizanne Kapp's head and such was the timing that it raced down the ground. She gave Khaka more special treatment in the penultimate over of the innings, hitting her for three fours.

"[Deepti] said I should not try to hit the ball too hard," Amanjot said. "[The conversation was about] first to try for singles and then the boundaries will keep coming once we are set. She asked me to rein in my excitement since it was my debut and told me to stay calm and build a partnership so that the team can reach a respectable position."

Amanjot started training as a 17-year-old under coach Nagesh Gupta, primarily as a bowler. Her father enrolled her in the academy but thought her craze for cricket would fizzle out. She was set on doing something noteworthy for India in cricket though, and, seeing her dedication, her father, who was a woodwork contractor and carpenter, made some changes of his own to help her along. He quit his woodwork job and stuck to carpentry work in locations near their home so that he could drop Amanjot at training and pick her up again.

"The travelling [between home and academy] was three and a half to four hours and he played a big role in managing that in 2016-17 when I had started," Amanjot explained. "Earlier he used to undertake longer work, and used to stay at the [client's] place and be away from home sometimes. But to pick and drop me from the academy, he left that."

Having made a stellar first impression in India's blue, Amanjot knows her journey has only just started. But, as always, she's up for the challenge.