Deepti Sharma is an Indian cricketer who plays for the Indian women’s cricket team as an all-rounder. She holds several records in cricket. On 13 February 2023, during the Women’s Premier League (WPL) auctions in Mumbai, Deepti was signed by UP Warriorz for Rs. 2.60 crores.Deepti grew up in a middle-class family in Agra, Uttar Pradesh.Her brother Sumit Sharma was also a cricketer in his younger days. Sumit played for Uttar Pradesh in the C K Naidu Trophy. Later, he gave up cricket as his parents could not afford to bear his cricketing expenses. Sumit worked at a private firm for a while and later, set up a cricket coaching camp in Uttar Pradesh.Deepti was 9 years old when her family came to know about her passion for cricket. She was so passionate about the game that she would often ask her father to tell her brother Sumit to take her along to the cricket ground, where he practiced the game. At the ground, Deepti loved watching her brother and his friends play cricket, and it became her routine to pick up the stray ball and throw it back to the players. One day, when Deepti was watching her brother and his friends play cricket at the Ekalavya sports stadium, she picked up a stray ball and tossed it back to the ground from 50 meters. The ball hit the stumps. The incident caught the attention of Hemlata Kala, a former Indian cricketer and the then chairperson of the BCCI’s women’s selection panel, who was present there to train the cricketers. Kala immediately enquired about Deepti and told Sumit that if trained properly, Deepti would go on to represent India someday.Soon, Sumit (Deepti’s first coach) began training her in cricket. After a few months of training, Deepti started giving auditions for state cricket teams but was overlooked by the selectors due to her age. This continued for a few years.Meanwhile, Kala made sure that Deepti received good training and collected appropriate experience. Kala also took Deepti to nets at the Railway Camps in Delhi and Allahabad.At one of the camps, Deepti came to the notice of Rita Dey, a former Indian cricketer and selector, who decided to mentor her.Soon, she started getting offers to play cricket at the domestic level. Deepti gave several consistent performances at the domestic level and was later called up for a camp at the National Cricket Academy (NCA).She played her first One Day International match on 28 November 2014 against South Africa Women at Bengaluru during the ICC Women’s Championship.Two years later, Deepti recorded her best ODI bowling figures by making six dismissals in a match agaainst Sri Lanka in Ranchi.