Indian women’s team all-rounder Deepti Sharma has risen in the latest ICC Women’s T2oI Bowlers Rankings and bagged the second spot along with Pakistan national team player Sadia Iqbal. Deepti jumped from third place to second after South African Nonkululeko Mlaba’s performance in the ongoing T20I series against Australia, in which she still has one match left to play.
Deepti Sharma is currently preparing to participate in the second edition of the Women’s Premier League starting February 23 onwards. She will appear for UP Warriorz after being signed by the franchise ahead of the player auction in November for the 2024 edition.
UP Warriorz had finished third in the points table last year and their qualification for the final against Delhi Capitals Women was all but sealed before losing to eventual champions Mumbai Indians Women in the only semi-final clash by a huge margin of 72 runs.
Deepti Sharma had played an important role in the Warriorz’s resurgence after poor performances in the early parts of the inaugural season. The North Indian team had a mixed performance in the opening days of the league, winning 2 and losing 2 in their first 4 matches.
They had a similar performance in the second half of the season, as they achieved 2 wins and lost 2 games in their last 4 games. UP Warriorz confirmed their place for the play-off match against MI Women’s following a 5-wicket win against DC Women’s in their 8th and final league match.
This time, the UP team will seek to take a step forward to reach the final. Their WPL 2024 campaign will begin against Smriti Mandhana’s Royal Challengers Bangalore Women in what will be the second WPL match on February 24 at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, which will host all the matches of the first half of the season.
Last year, two stadiums in Maharashtra namely DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai and CCI Brabourne Stadium near Churchgate. This year, after the Bengaluru phase, the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi will host the second phase matches, including the play-off round and the final.
Deepti Sharma and Renuka Singh move into the top 10 of the bowlers’ rankings, while the former also retains the fourth spot in the all-rounders’ rankings
Deepti Sharma and Sadia Iqbal are currently the second best WT20I bowlers in the world as they both have a rating of 718 respectively. Deepti’s teammate Renuka Thakur also reached a higher rank from 11th to 10th in the latest update with a rating of 701.
Deepti Sharma also remained at fourth place in the all-rounder rankings with a rating of 376. She had a very good 2023 calendar year in the shortest format, scoring 106 runs and picking up 21 wickets in 19 games for the women in Blue. She also became the first Indian bowler to record 100 WT20I wickets during the Women’s T2o World Cup.
In December 2023, Deepti became the first Indian bowler to record a 5-wicket haul against Australia in the second-longest format of the game. Overall, the 26-year-old has 1015 runs and 113 wickets in 104 WT20 outings.