Deepti Sharma on her incredible journey and her efforts to master Ashwin's carrom ball
When the Indian women’s team were losing wickets in heaps in the final, slumping from a relatively comfortable position of 191 for 3 to 219 all out, even the most pessimistic Indian fan harboured hopes of a comeback while Deepti Sharma was at the crease.
That is enough to tell you the faith that everyone has in Deepti, the incredibly talented 19-year-old all-rounder from Agra. She was the fifth highest run-getter for India in the tournament with 216 runs and two half-centuries from nine matches. With 12 scalps, she was also the highest wicket-taker for her team.
And not too long ago, she had scored an incredible 188, in a world record partnership of 320 with Poonam Raut, making her’s the second highest individual score in women’s limited overs cricket.
Despite the huge expectations, Sharma failed to carry her team home in the finals, getting out off the first ball of the penultimate over.
Extra cover: ICC Women’s World Cup 2017: 5 areas where the Indian Women’s team needs improvement
"When I went to bat in the final, the team needed 28 runs and my focus was on staying till the end. I focussed on taking singles and hitting the odd ball for a boundary,” she said in an interview to the IANS.
"It was an achievable target but somehow things did not work in our favour. No regrets as such as we fought hard before losing. It would have been a heart-break had we not given a fight.”
She had lots of praise in store for skipper Mithali Raj and how she had led the team throughout the tournament.
"One thing I have learnt from this World Cup is to remain cool in pressure situations. Whatever the situation is, you need to stay calm which unfortunately we couldn't in the World Cup final.
"Mithali Raj is the (Mahendra Singh) Dhoni in our team. She is cool and keeps her composure at crucial moments. I always try to grab the good things and have benefited a lot," she added.
Sharma is vying for her spot along with three other frontline Indian spinners, Ekta Bisht, Rajeshwari Gayakwad and Poonam Yadav. But she sees this as a healthy competition and mentions the importance of stitching together crucial bowling partnerships.
"It's a healthy combination with Ekta or the other spinners in the team. But everything depends on the conditions whether we approach the innings with two spinners and three pacers or a three-spinner attack," she said.
And of course, her all-round abilities are an added bonus when it comes to selection conundrums. On any given day, Sharma can walk into any team solely on the basis of her bowling or her batting abilities.
"I am a batting all-rounder, generally open the innings,” she said. “But I keep myself flexible to bat at any position where my captain wants me to. It all depends on the situation of the game."
Sharma closely follows the men’s cricket team and is always trying to learn new tricks of the trade to add to her artillery. Bent on improving her bowling, she says that she has been closely following Ravichandran Ashwin and trying to add his carrom ball to her weaponry.
"I keep watching Ashwin's videos and try to learn from his variations. I haven't met him yet but am a fan of the variations he uses in Test cricket," Deepti said.
"I tried the carrom ball at the nets but haven't used it in a match situation as yet. It is necessary to have variation in your bowling as most of the non-Asian batswomen find it tough to handle quality spin bowling.”
Reminiscing about her journey from the small grounds of Agra to a dream World Cup final at Lord’s, Sharma became nostalgic while speaking about her development as a cricketer.
"I used to accompany my brother to his academy in Agra. One day I was sitting on the stairs watching his match and suddenly the ball came to me. I threw back the ball and it directly hit the stumps.
"There were a few girls practising on the ground and among them was (veteran India batswoman) Hemlata Kala, who enquired about me.
"She immediately asked my brother to bring me along to the ground every day, saying: 'She has a lot of potential, you have no idea of her talent.' From there the journey started.
"Not many people recognised us before we went to the World Cup. But it is after our performance in the semi-final (against Australia) that people started hailing us. I feel proud to be a part of the team," she said.
Sharma also batted for a Women’s IPL since the time is right and interest in women’s cricket is peaking at the moment.
"Women's IPL should have started long back when the men's IPL started in 2008, but it’s never too late. The sooner it starts it's better for women's cricket in the country,” she said.