After Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana and Jemima Rodriguez, Deepti Sharma has become the latest from the Indian team to pen a contract with a club in one of the foreign leagues. The 21-year-old joined the Western Storm on Friday, a franchise of the KIA Super League, a women’s T20 league organised by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), where she’ll be teaming up with compatriot Smriti.
The off spinner has played 30 T20Is so far, taking 28 wickets at an average of 22.92. Her ODI record stands at 48 matches and 56 wickets at an average of 27.39 with a best of 6/20.
Talking about their latest acquisition, Trevor Griffin, the head coach of the #Stormtroopers said that one of the primary reasons why the team went ahead with Deepti was her availability for the entirety of the campaign. “Continuity of selection is something that has played a huge roll in our success over the last few years, and therefore, we felt it was important to sign overseas players who will be with us for the duration of the campaign,” Griffin said speaking to the team’s official website.
“Deepti is a quality player with a huge amount of experience at the very highest level and she will bring something a little bit different to our squad this year. She’s still only 21 but she will bring a huge amount of experience and knowledge to our dressing room. She is currently rated as the second-best all-rounder in the world in one-day cricket by the ICC, so her quality is there for all to see.”
Deepti too was happy with the move. “I am looking forward to the challenge of playing in the KIA Super League. Every player wants to play alongside and against the best in the world, and this will give me the opportunity to do that.
“I have heard good things about Western Storm from Smriti and I can’t wait to contribute to the team’s success on the field.”
Feature image courtesy: Twitter/ @WesternStormKSL
