The youngest among her siblings, Deepti Sharma used to request her father daily to ask her brother Sumit Sharma, a former Uttar Pradesh pacer, to take her to the cricket ground. It was since the age of nine that she developed her love for the game. The medium pacer turned off-spinner started delivering brilliant performances for state and A side matches that helped her catch attention of the selectors to get call for national cricket team.
Her debut against South Africa during the ICC Women’s Championship 2014 in Bangalore helped Sharma prove her mettle and then there was no looking back. She failed with the bat but was brilliant with ball. She took the wickets of two leading scorers of South African side and ended the match with 10-0-35-2.
On 15th May, 2017 19-year-old Deepti Sharma went on to register her name in record books when she got involved in a 320-run partnership with Punam Raut against Ireland. They broke the existing 268-run stand between Caroline Atkins and Sarah Taylor. The record is still unbeaten.
For India the previous longest standing partnership in ODI was the unbeaten 258 runs partnership between the debutants Reshma Gandhi and Mithali Raj which also came against Ireland women in 1999. On the way Sharma scored 188 and Raut added 109 runs. Her 188 became the second highest score in Women’s ODI after Belinda Clark’s monumental 229. Later Amelia Kerr scored an unbeaten 232 to claim the position at top. Sharma also hit 27 fours, another world record later broken by Kerr.
Sharma’s best bowling figures in her career came against Sri Lanka when she claimed six wickets for just 20 in ICC Women’s Championship 2016. She is the only Indian spinner to take six WODI wickets. Lats year in a T20 match against South Africa She ended with figures of 4/8 and her three of the four overs were maidens. She gave away the first run on the 19th delivery she bowled. She yet again went into the history books as the only Indian to have bowled as many maidens in a T20I match. Deepti Sharma is the fastest Indian to have an ODI double of 1000 runs and 50 wickets.
When it comes to domestic cricket, one of the finest contemporary all-rounders has shown her expertise. She was roped in to play for Bengal in Senior women’s domestic season 2017-18 and ended as the top run scorer in the season scoring 312 runs in just six matches which included five half centuries. She took nine wickets as well. In the next season Sharma helped Bengal clinch their maiden win in the Senior Women’s One Day League 2018-19. With 487 runs and 22 wickets, she finished as the highest run-scorer and the second-highest wicket-taker in the competition.
The 22-year-old is currently the fourth and fifth ranked player in the ICC Women’s All Rounder ODI Rankings and T20I rankings respectively. She also holds the sixth place in the T20I Bowling Rankings. No wonder why she has been named for Arjuna Award this year.