Meet Deepti Sharma, the ‘Ben Stokes of women’s team’

NAVI MUMBAI: It’s a compliment that must have left Deepti Sharma on cloud nine. Soon after the off-spinning allrounder returned a brilliant match haul of 9/39 in 13.3 overs (5-7 & 4-32) to go with her 67 in the first innings, new head coach Amol Muzumdar said he calls her the “Ben Stokes of the team”.
Deepti became only the second Indian after Shubhangi Kulkarni to pick up five wickets and score a fifty in a Test.“You are talking about ‘Stokesy’. I jokingly call her theBen Stokes of the team,” Muzumdar told WV Raman, himself a former coach of the team, on the official broadcast on Saturday.

“She is fantastic. The confidence she has shown in her batting and the confidence she has gained in these two innings… she is an important cog in the wheel… she bowls crucial overs and gets wickets.”

Born in Agra, Deepti, who plays for Bengal in domestic cricket, shot into the limelight in 2017, when as a 19-year-old she smashed 188 — the second-highest score in women’s ODIs and the highest by an Indian — against South Africa.
In 2015-16, she was named as the best woman junior cricketer by the BCCI.
The youngest of seven siblings, Deepti followed the path set by her brother Sunit, a former medium-pacer who represented Uttar Pradesh in the under-22 CK Nayudu Trophy. Her father, Bhagwan Sharma, was a chief booking supervisor with Indian Railways. Her mother Sushila is a retired principal of a government school.

In 2014, she scored an unbeaten 53 for India ‘A’ to earn her maiden ODI call-up, taking two wickets on debut against South Africa in Bangalore. In her third ODI, she took 6/20, becoming the youngest Indian to take a five-for.
A Suresh Raina fan in her early days, Deepti possesses a fine white-ball record. In February 2023, she was ranked as the No. 2 bowler by the ICC in women’s T20Is, just behind her UP Warriorz teammate, English left-arm spinner Sophie Ecclestone. Deepti was bought by the UP Warriorz for Rs 2.6 cr in the last WPL auction. Only RCB paid more for Smriti Mandhana (Rs 3.4 cr).
“She’s currently one of the top all-rounders in world cricket, and can be the best across formats for many years to come,” said UP Warriorz COO Kshemal Waingankar.\

Unlike today’s young cricketers, Deepti isn’t active on social media. The 26-year-old has a keen, analytical mind. On Day Two of the Test, while waiting for her turn to bowl, Deepti said she had begun plotting about how she would send the English batters packing on the spin-friendly track.
“I was waiting for my bowling. The wicket was helping the spinners, I was thinking how we could use it. I wanted to bowl in the right areas. When I was fielding in the slips, I was just seeing what the bowler was doing and wondering what I can add in order to get wickets,” Deepti said. “Since you have ample time in Tests, you can plan carefully.”
Former India captain Shanta Rangaswamy said, “She’s an excellent player, who gives her best for the team. She’s perhaps one of the few players whose batting order is frequently changed, more so in T20s and ODIs. She has batted at almost every position, depending on the whims of the team management.”
Diana Edulji, former India women’s team captain, told TOI, “Back in 2017, we wanted to hire her in the Railways, but she hadn’t even cleared her class 10 exams so she didn’t qualify. In this Test, her allround performance was the game changer. The Aussies need to beware of her and this Indian team. I wish we had used her properly in the T20I series, got her to bat earlier than she did.”