‘I want to learn to bowl the carrom ball’

new delhi — It is very rare to come across spin bowling variations in women’s cricket, but allrounder Deepti Sharma, fresh from her brilliant performance in the just-concluded ICC Women’s World Cup, is now focussed on developing a ‘carrom’ ball, mostly used by the likes of Ravichandran Ashwin and Sri Lanka’s Ajantha Mendis.

In a tell-all interview to IANS, the 19-year-old revealed about her brief cricketing journey from the smaller grounds in Agra to playing a World Cup final in front of a jampacked Lord’s.

“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 everyday, saying: ‘She has a lot of potential, you have no idea of her talent’. From there the journey started,” she said.

Deepti likes calling herself a batting all-rounder but of late has turned her focus to improving her off-spin bowling, with the addition of the variations.

“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 match situation as yet. It is necessary to have variations in your bowling as most of the non-Asian batswomen find it tough to handle quality spin bowling.

“I am a batting all-rounder, generally open the innings. 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,” she added.

Reminiscing about her journey in the World Cup, the young southpaw picked out the win against hosts England in the opening match as a confidence booster for the Women in Blue.

“The win against England in the World Cup opener was a confidence booster for us. From there on we started believing in our abilities and complimented each other’s efforts.” —