Young left-arm spinner Vaishnavi Sharma was handed her T20I debut ahead of India’s first of a five-match home series against Sri Lanka on Sunday at the ACA-VDCA stadium in Visakhapatnam.

She became the 89th player to represent India in women’s T20Is.

Vaishnavi was part of the Indian Under-19 team which won the Women’s T20 World Cup earlier in the year. She, along with G. Kamalini, who was also part of the U-19 team, received her maiden senior team call-up ahead of this series.

The 20-year-old was the leading wicket-taker with 17 wickets at the U-19 Women’s World Cup. She also has been in good touch on the domestic circuit, picking up 21 wickets in the Senior Women’s T20 Trophy and 12 scalps from five matches, the most, in the Senior Women’s Inter-Zonal T20s.

Ahead of India’s series opener against the Lankans, the Women in Blue won the toss and elected to bowl.

Vaishnavi even almost took her maiden international wicket but her teammate N. Shree Charani couldn’t hold on to a catch to send Hasini Perera back. Nonetheless, the Madhya Pradesh player ended the innings as India’s most economical bowler, conceding just 16 runs in her four overs.

Published on Dec 21, 2025