NEWS
Destiny has a unique way of making things happen. Sushma Verma was happily enjoying her school life and pursuing various sports. Cricket was never a part of any plan. But then, she came across a random newspaper advertisement that would eventually change the course of her life.
Sushma is winning hearts with her talent and swiftness. From balancing her studies and cricket to sacrificing everything for practice, she has taken some tough decisions. These have bore fruit. And today she is a force to reckon with. Let’s take a dive into her incredible rise…
| Details | |
|---|---|
| Full Name | Sushma Verma |
| Age | 28 (as of 2020) |
| Date of Birth | 3 November 1992 |
| Hometown | Shimla, Himachal Pradesh |
| Parent | Bhopal Singh Verma (father) |
| ODI Debut | 24 November 2014 |
| Test Debut | 16 November 2014 |
| T 20 Debut | 5 April 2013 |
| Teams Played for | Himachal Pradesh, India Blue Women, India Board President’s Women XI, Railways |
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Sushma dabbled with numerous sports in her school time. She even represented her school in state-level competitions of volleyball, handball, and badminton. She joined the Portmore Govt Model school in Shimla and was exposed to all these games.
“I always had an interest in cricket, but had not played a proper game before. As kids, we had seen a lot of games on television. Since I was very active in sports, I decided to give it a shot,” Sushma told Cricbuzz.
“My experience in the game was limited to gully cricket. There is not much exposure, especially for girls, in the state I come from. I didn’t even know there is a proper gear for it,” she added.
Himachal Pradesh Cricket Stadium in Dharamshala published an advertisement for a residential cricket academy. Sushma randomly decided to try for the same. Before this, she had not played cricket at all.
However, she surprisingly impressed the selectors and moved to the state-of-the-art facility. Unfortunately, though, there wasn’t any educational facility nearby. As a result, she had to travel a lot to pursue her graduation. The regiment was very hectic with practice starting at 5 am. She finished her Bachelor of Arts at the MCM DAV College in Kangra.
After dabbling with batting and medium-pace, Sushma took up wicket-keeping at the insistence of her coach Pawan Sen. She soon excelled in it and is not one of the swiftest cricketers in the team.
Soon, she started playing for the Himachal state team. Her stellar performance for the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association catapulted her fame, and she became the captain of the team. Her leadership skills became prominent since then. Major victories include the Under-19 All-India women’s tournament 2011.
In the next few years, little disappointment started creeping, because of lack of opportunities. Instead of feeling sad, Sushma found limited opportunities in domestic cricket, hence, she decided to play for the Railways.
There her teammates were greats like Mithali Raj, Harmanpreet Kaur, and Punam Raut.
“I was surrounded by India players! Anjum di was in slips, Jaya (Sharma) di in gully, Latika (Kumari) that point, Reema (Malhotra) di in covers and Harry di (Harmanpreet Kaur) at mid-off. I was a nervous wreck, but thankfully that didn’t reflect on my on-field performance,” she told Cricbuzz.
Sushma started her career in 2014 with Indian women’s team’s England tour. She was also a member of Women’s Cricket World Cup team that played against England at 2017 final. However, her career hasn’t evolved as she would have liked to.
After her exploits at the 2017 ICC Women’s World Cup, she was even offered the job of a DSP by Himachal Police.
Coming in late in the innings, Sushma has managed to score just 178 runs in 21 innings at an average of 9.88. Her performances in T20I also aren’t as encouraging – 31 runs from 6 innings at an average of 10.33.
However, she would be raring to prove herself, especially with the 2021 World Cup coming up. Nonetheless, Sushma is one of the swiftest wicketkeepers out there.
Here’s a small glimpse…
| Mat | Inns | NO | Runs | HS | Ave | BF | SR | 100 | 50 | 4s | 6s | Ct | St | |
| Tests | 1 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 4 | 1 |
| ODIs | 38 | 21 | 3 | 178 | 41 | 9.88 | 293 | 60.75 | 0 | 0 | 15 | 2 | 25 | 21 |
| T20Is | 19 | 6 | 3 | 31 | 12 | 10.33 | 38 | 81.57 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 6 | 19 |
“I improved watching Gilchrist’s videos; I still do. Cricket is not for the weak-hearted, I learnt from observing him. He played a lot of Test cricket in his days where the challenge used to be saving extra runs in the form of byes. He’s missed some, but the way he used to the comeback was phenomenal. That’s what I try to adopt in my game, too,” she once revealed.
Sushma rues the fact that she can hardly spend any time with her family. Her sports-loving family has always supported her and cheered her during matches. In fact, they have been stocking up on the magazine Cricket Samrat even before the year 1992.
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