Deepti Sharma was part of the Indian women’s team that had missed winning the 2017 World Cup by a whisker against England at Lord’s. Playing a final at the Mecca of cricket for the first time, the Indian women, from a position of strength, fell in a heap and lost the game by a mere nine runs. Chasing 229, India had the match in their grasp at 191-3. But they lost seven wickets for the addition of 28 runs in 35 balls, much to the players’s and the Indian fans’s dismay. Now, three survivors from that final — Deepti Sharma, Harmanpreet Kaur and Smriti Mandhana — have been able to redeem much of the pain they have carried for the last eight years by winning the World Cup in Navi Mumbai on Sunday night.
Deepti said that had she stayed on till the end, she could have won it for India. “We required just 10 runs from the last two overs with two wickets in hand. But then I got out to the first ball of the penultimate over and that virtually sealed our defeat. Ever since, that defeat has been rankling me, how we let go of an opportunity of winning the maiden World Cup at the very venue where the Indian men’s team, under Kapil Dev, had won the trophy the first time in 1983. We were all disappointed to have missed that golden opportunity. Luckily, God provided us with another opportunity and this time we made sure we did not mess it up,” Deepti said with a lump in her throat.
“The 2017 final defeat hurt me a lot, especially as I could have taken the team across, but then I also learned important lessons about how to absorb the pressure, and not to give in till the end. Those bitter moments and experiences have helped me to emerge as a much better player. Winning the trophy as well as the Player of the Tournament award [on Sunday night] has helped wipe out the disappointments we have faced in ICC tournaments over the years,” she said.
Hailing from the city of Agra, Deepti has been indispensable in the Indian line-up ever since she made her debut in 2014, especially as she bats left-handed and bowls right-arm off-spin. Her versatility has made her a permanent feature in the team. She came into prominence when she scored a massive 188 vs Ireland in a four-nation WODI tournament in South Africa in 2017. Though that remains her only century, she has played many important innings down the order over the years. Besides, with her wily off-spin, she has been a regular wicket-taker. And her famed all-round ability was on display in the 2025 World Cup, when she became the first player to score more than 200 runs and take more than 20 wickets in a single World Cup edition. She ended this tournament with 215 runs and 22 wickets and dedicated the Player of the Tournament trophy to her parents, Bhagwan and Sushila.
“I owe my love for cricket to my elder brother Sumit, who played age-group cricket for UP and seeing him, I got attracted to the game and started going to Eklavya Stadium [in Agra]. My parents encouraged me and never stopped me from playing with the boys there. I gradually was selected in the district team and then Indian women’s selector [former international player] Hemlata [Kala] Didi, picked me in the UP team and then the Indian team,” she recalled her journey in the game.
Deepti, 28, said that winning the World Cup had only rekindled her enthusiasm for the game and she is looking forward to the next major assignment, the ICC T20 World Cup to be held in England in June next year. “Yes, our next focus is on the T20 World Cup. We did very well on the England tour in June and that has given us the confidence to aim for the double of T20 and ODI World titles.”
22
No. of wickets taken by Deepti Sharma in this WC