FEATURES
Follow UsAugust 7, 2022
Birmingham Commonwealth Games
Chasing 162 for a chance to see the tricolour flying the highest, Harmanpreet Kaur and Jemimah Rodrigues were cruising. However, the choke arrived from Australia and from a comfortable 118/2 in 14.2 overs, needing 44 off 34, the Indian women lost eight wickets in roughly five overs and lost the gold medal by nine runs.
Batting at number six, Deepti Sharma was responsible for finishing the game for India. However, she could only middle one boundary, got another four through an edge, and eventually was dismissed trying to flick a ball on the leg side that was full around off. Australia had set three fielders on the leg side for Deepti, and despite that, she went for a loose shot in that region.
Deepti was dismissed for 13 off 8, and India’s gold medal departed with her.
India needed her to be a finisher; hit boundaries and calm the nerves of the lower order. But on that fateful day, when India’s thin batting order crumbled under pressure, it became clear that this version of Deepti the batter wasn’t cut out to bat in the top seven for India. The trust in her batting was depleted deeply, and India were left searching for finishers down the order.
As it would turn out, the Women’s Premier League started five months later, and the Indian women got some good options for that spot, as Richa Ghosh consolidated her position in the batting order. Meanwhile, Deepti’s batting became an afterthought. Teams started putting solid fields in the deep midwicket region for her, which severely reduced her boundary-hitting ability in situations where it was needed the most.
Her bowling and fielding always remained top-quality for the Women in Blue, but her batting was just not cutting it. Things had to change if Deepti Sharma was to become a genuine all-rounder in white-ball cricket.
And you know the best thing? Change might have taken its time. But it has definitely come!
August 18, 2024
The Hundred Women’s Competition
Final - London Spirit vs Welsh Fire
The London Spirit had aced the chase; however, their last recognised batting pair, Deepti Sharma and Charlie Dean, were batting, and one wicket there with 6 runs needed in the last 5 would have turned the tide dramatically.
The Indian all-rounder had been in these positions before. But this wasn’t the old Deepti. This was like her 2.0 batting version because 212 runs in six innings at a strike rate of 132.5 with an average of 212 batting down the order is not something you associate with Deepti.
However, Indian women’s head coach Amol Muzumdar was always on to something, as he had called her the “Ben Stokes of the Indian women’s team.”
The Spirit needed 4 off 3 when Deepti smashed a six over long-on to win the trophy for her team.
This is what India would have once hoped from her. However, the journey that Deepti Sharma, the batter, has taken from that fateful day a little more than two years ago is much more substantial than the trophy she achieved today at Lord’s.
**
Deepti needed to work on three very particular aspects of her white-ball batting - reducing dot ball percentage, hitting more boundaries down the ground rather than towards mid-wicket, and using the off side of the field a lot more for her scoring shots.
The 2023 WPL was extremely poor for Deepti. Even a quick look at her numbers will tell you she wouldn’t become a finisher by scoring at an average of 12.85 and a strike rate of 83.3. Moreover, she still hit everything towards the leg side, like a robot working in only one setting.
Deepti needed a reboot in the 2024 season, and that’s what she told my colleague Aakash Sivasubramaniam when he caught up with her before the 2024 WPL season. When asked about improvements in her batting, she just told him to “watch out.” She made it clear that she has worked hard on it.
“I have increased my sessions and worked a lot on my batting, playing according to the situation. The more shots I got into my arsenal, the more opportunities I could score in the field,” Deepti told Cricket.com.
“I have worked previously and continue working hard on my power-hitting. I love the role of a finisher, that’s something that I enjoy doing. I know the situation, so that I can prepare myself according to the situation.”
Her efforts bore fruit tremendously in the 2024 season, where she scored 295 runs at a strike rate of 136.6 and an average of 98.33. Looking at her wagon wheel from this season, you’ll still see her being dominant on the leg side. But her boundary shots on the off side were getting better.
That improvement was visible in her dot ball %, as it went down from 49% in 2023 to 32.4% in WPL 2024. While she hit zero sixes in the inaugural season, she tonked eight in 2024, with 62.3% of her runs coming in boundaries.
That refinement pattern in her batting skills down the order continued even faster in The Hundred this year. While she got out only once, she faced only 27.5% dot balls this season. With only 50.9% of her runs coming in boundaries this season, it was clear that she was running hard between the wickets, and 104 of her 212 runs came in singles and doubles.
Moreover, her six-hitting was so much more cleaner in the Hundred than what we have seen in the past from her. She targeted the region between long-off and wide long-on, and hitting straighter proved to be game changer for her. You can see in the wagon wheel comparison above how her off side boundary hitting also got better from February when she played the WPL.
This new avatar of Deepti that finishes games in big finals for her team is what India had wished for with every finger and toe crossed. And finally, it seems like it’s here. Coach Muzumdar and Captain Kaur need someone who can hit boundaries but is still trustworthy enough to bat below Richa in the batting order. With Deepti batting like this, there’s no choice better than the "Ben Stokes of the Indian women's team."
