VIDEO | No disappointment over being wicketless, happy with performance, says debutant Vaishnavi

Among the positives India can take away from the eight-wicket win against Sri Lanka in the first T20I at the ACA-VDCA Stadium here on Sunday is the way Vaishnavi Sharma went about in her India debut.

Vaishnavi, who was part of the under-19 team that won the women’s T20 World Cup earlier in the year, became the 89th woman to represent India in T20Is. Despite making the big step up to the senior side, the 20-year-old barely showed any signs of nerves during the pre-match drills.

That said, she did battle some in the minutes leading up to the contest.

“I was nervous before the national anthem. After that was played, I calmed down a bit,” she told the media after the win.

While she wasn’t given news of her debut until matchday, she admitted that she had an inclination about it in the days leading up to the series opener.

She almost got her maiden wicket on her India debut, before Sree Charani fumbled a simple catch.

“There was no disappointment (when the catch was dropped). I am just very happy that I was able to execute my plan and there are four more matches to go.”

The Women in Blue and the ecosystem around them are still riding high on the side’s ODI World Cup triumph a few weeks back, a triumph Vaishnavi followed by the North Eastern corner of the country.

“I was in Nagaland when India won the World Cup. We were playing in the senior zonals at that time, but were also keeping an eye on the final. I felt very happy when we won, we celebrated a lot.”

While Sree Charani and Kranti Gaud went on to win the World Cup in their debut years, Vaishanvi is choosing to stay grounded instead of taking a leaf out of their books.

“Whatever happens, it will be good. Let’s leave it to God.”

Published on Dec 22, 2025