SHREE CHARANI LIVING HER DREAM

21-year-old from Andhra Pradesh, who was juggling between various sports before cricket, is all set to play in a ODI World Cup. Gomesh S tries to understand the making of the spinner

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AKKA, nuvvu ivvandi (sister, give me the ball), I will do it." Sneha Deepthi still remembers one of the on-field conversations she had with NR Shree Charani during the senior women's T20 tournament in October 2022. Shree Charani, 18 at that time, had just made her senior team debut in the same tournament.

And at a time when things were at a tricky stage against an opponent, she walked up to her captain, Sneha and asked for the ball.

"I don't remember if it's her first or second game. She came to me and asked, 'Akka, I will do this. Have faith in me, Akka.

Please give me (the ball). I will do it'," Sneha remembers with the same sense of awe she felt when Charani asked for the ball. "Whenever I think about her, this will come to my mind.

She was playing her first few T20s with the senior team. She was so confident. She wanted me to give her bowling. That will always be stuck with me," she adds.

And it is not just Sneha, anyone within the cricketing fraternity who has seen or interacted with Charani will circle back to one thing - her confidence. While it may come as a surprise to people who see her for the first time, not for Kishore and Kiran Reddy Charani's mamas (uncles). It is a trait she has carried, and so has her sister who is working in the US, from the days of playing gully cricket used to bowl fast Kishore as a kid.

she with Despite her love for the sport, Charani took to athletics first while studying at the DAV school in Rayalaseema Thermal Power Station (RTPC), Kadapa district, where her father Chandra Shekar Reddy works.

She played kho-kho, badminton, and was also a 3K runner.