Navi Mumbai, Dec 14 (IANS): The success of debutante batter Shubha Satheesh on the opening day of the one-off Test against England Women at the DY Patil Stadium here has proved that toiling hard at the domestic level does pay in the end.

On Thursday, Shubha Satheesh top-scored for India with 69 and shared a crucial partnership of 115 runs for the third wicket with fellow debutante Jemimah Rodrigues, who was making her India debut after representing the country for a few years in white-ball cricket.

Shubha, meanwhile, played for Karnataka in various tournaments for 6-7 years before being selected for the national team and getting picked by a Women's Premier League (WPL) franchise, said was not bitter about not getting a chance earlier.

"It has been quite a journey for me, I have been in domestic cricket for 6-7 years now. Getting an India call-up was living in a dream sort of thing," said Shubha, who was picked by Royal Challengers Bangalore in the WPL auction for her base price while teenagers like Kashvee Gautam and Vrinda Dinesh became millionaires after attracting record sums in the auction.

However, Shubha said by scoring a half-century on debut, she was not trying to prove a point to people who had not considered her earlier.

"I did not really think of that (proving a point), because I just had to play good cricket — that is all I believe in. I started playing cricket when I was 12. I used to play other team sports as well. I was fortunate (to be playing cricket) as I did not have any thought of becoming a cricketer when I started. At the age of 12, I just wanted to play," said the 24-year-old left-handed batter from Mysore.

"It is a journey — it is a process is what I feel. It is an amazing feeling. I am out of words because it is happening altogether right now. It is always a learning process, I will definitely learn from this and move on and get a bigger one next time," said Shubha.