India vs Sri Lanka: Vaishnavi Sharma’s international debut is a reward for domestic performances, says coach Amol Muzumdar

Amol Muzumdar

Vaishnavi impressed with her economical bowling in the first match in Visakhapatnam though she was unlucky not to pick up a wicket.

It was something of a surprise when Vaishnavi Sharma – widely touted as one of the most promising name in the mega auction pool for WPL – found no takers from the five franchises. The young left-arm spinner from Madhya Pradesh, who just turned 20 last week, was India’s leading wicket-taker at the U19 World Cup earlier this year, including a memorable 5/5 against Sri Lanka where she also registered a hat-trick. In the Senior Women’s T20 Trophy she was again at the top of wicket-taking charts with 21 from 9 innings. While a WPL bid has proved elusive for now, head coach Amol Muzumdar said on Thursday that the promising spinner has been rewarded with an international debut against Sri Lanka based on the consistency of her domestic exploits.

“I think she responded really well,” Muzumdar said in Thiruvananthapuram ahead of the third T20I. “Credit to her that she comes from under-19. And I would like to stress that domestic performance was rewarded by the selectors. So real credit to them.”