India Women cricketers to take 100-plus T20I wickets

But then, no women’s team can only ever rely on the great abilities of its set of batters; frequent wicket-takers and game changers are too just as important and hold a significant place in the annals of the game. Never more important than the hugely competitive arena called T20I cricket. And there have already been two extremely talented and quirky cricketers who today feature on a captivating list. So what is it? Let us find out about the exceptional names that feature on the list of India women cricketers to take 100-plus T20I wickets.

List of India Women cricketers to take 100-plus T20I wickets

Deepti Sharma

Thus far not only a great and prominent feature on the list of India Women cricketers to take 100-plus T20I wickets, but the most successful feature on that list – Deepti Sharma’s talent is endless. Many a time, when she hasn’t changed the context of a game with her outstanding off spin bowling, she rounds up with much-needed flow of runs from down the order putting to useful effect her left hand batting. Having played the sport for her country for several years now, Deepti, still all of 27, has already clinched 144* T20I wickets and that is an exasperating and wonderful number.

Exasperating surely for India’s rivals!

Having said that, Deepti Sharma, an incredible figure on the list of India Women cricketers to take 100-plus T20I wickets has played 127 games and even scored 1093 vital runs from the bat. She was part of the team during the great halcyon days of Mithali and Jhulan and at present, continues ably to perform as a great senior around names like Jemimah, Shafali, Pooja Vastrakar, among others.

Radha Yadav

There are always bowlers who clinch wickets by not consuming too many runs. And then there are bowlers who round up as exceptional fielders in the outfield. Radha Yadav, 100* T20I wickets from 87 games, is a bit of both and more.

How so?

Arguably speaking, the best fielder in the current India women’s team to be the finest catcher or fielder of her own bowling, Radha Yadav is a great addition to the powerful looking and often times batting-leaning India team.

She has the exuberance of the youth and the promise of a match-winner and her best figures in T20Is read 4 for 23. Has already taken two four-for in the game and her best days are ahead of her.

Some other prominent women’s cricket team’s wicket-takers who might not have taken 100 T20I wickets but have captured a handy aggregate of wickets in the shorter format:

For starters, during the time of Jhulan Goswami, not too many games were contested by the team when it came to T20Is and it wasn’t before the time period of 2007 and 2008 onwards that the women’s team got to play T20I contests with more sense of regularity than seen before. Even then, Goswami, a giant of the women’s game and most certainly the greatest fast bowling talent ever produced by the women’s cricket stable in India, captured 58 T20I dismissals in the sport.

Just imagine what might have been the case had she been playing T20Is in the earlier part of 2000s- but then one can only think and imagine for in real, T20s were a much latter phenomenon.

That being said, let us shift our focus to other colossal figures in the contemporary India women’s team stable.

The one thing that really comes to the mind when one speaks of the India women cricketers to take 100 T20I wickets is the fact that two of the most important members of the generic Indian women’s squad- Rajeshwari Gayakwad as well as Poonam Yadav, though still fit and available for selection haven’t really played a great deal of shorter format cricket.

Both Gayakwad and Yadav, in terms of their charisma at changing the context of the game and their heavyduty talent in the game, are nothing shy of legendary figures in the women’s game, whether on speaks of Stafanie Taylor and Hayley Matthews or the dazzling duo in the White Ferns unit- Suzie Bates and Sophie Devine.

Together, Poonam Yadav and Rajeshwari Gayakwad have, thus far, accounted for no fewer than 159 T20 international wickets from around 130 contests. On the one hand, while Gayakwad scalped 61 wickets in the most exciting format of the game, as on date, Poonam Yadav stands desperately close to taking 100 wickets for her country. Her current tally is still on 98 wickets, which is no mean feat in the game. But at the same time, there’s a bit of surprise in the fact that Yadav’s last T20I game came versus the White Ferns in 2022. On the other hand, Rajeshwari Gayakwad was last seen turning up against Sri Lanka in the year 2023.

Will these two powerful and match-winning spinners return to the fold of team India, the fan would surely like to know someday.