Deepti Sharma and historic firsts always go hand in hand, and she has scripted her name in history books for the right reasons. During the recently concluded ICC Women’s T20 World Cup match, she starred for Team India and was instrumental in the collapse of the West Indies batting and scalped three wickets in what was a very economical spell. In the process, she became the first Indian bowler (man or woman) to take 100 wickets in T20 internationals.
Deepti Sharma’s all-round prowess is not unknown, but reaching this milestone with her bowling has been nothing short of remarkable. She has leapfrogged her fellow Indian teammates Poonam Yadav (98), Radha Yadav (67), Rajeshwari Gayakwad (58), Jhulan Goswami (56) and Ekta Bisht (53) to etch her name in the annals of history. Even when compared with men, she overtook Yuzvendra Chahal (91), Bhuvneshwar Kumar (90), Ravichandran Ashwin (72), Jasprit Bumrah (70), and Hardik Pandya (69) wickets, respectively.
While talking in the post-match conference, she was quoted saying, “I feel good. What we discussed in the meeting and the plans I had against the West Indies batters, we were able to apply that in the middle. That is a milestone, and I am happy with the achievement (first Indian to 100 T20I wickets). I am focusing on the rest of the World Cup games. There is a bit of turn in this surface, and I focus on bowling stump to stump.”
Considering her good vein of form, India will hope to see her play at her best and eventually translate to good showings through this T20 World Cup. Even at the recently concluded Women’s Premier League Auctions, the all-rounder has been picked up by the UP Warriorz franchise for a sum of INR 2.6 Crores, which was the third highest in the auction and with performances and milestones of this nature against her name, we can expect some brilliant performances from her in the inaugural league.
I am a first year postgraduate student pursuing a MA in Media and Communication Studies at Christ University, Bengaluru. I am a podcaster, blogger and an avid cricket fan. When not glued to cricket matches, you can find me submerged in books and thinking about cricket all the time.