CHENNAI: "Akka, nuvvu ivvandi (sister, give me the ball), I will do it." Sneha Deepthi still remembers one of the on-field conversations she had with NR Sree Charani during the senior women's T20 tournament in October 2022. Sree Charani, 18 at that time, had just made her senior team debut in the same tournament. And at a time when things were at a tricky stage against an opponent, she walked up to her captain, Sneha and asked for the ball.
"I don't remember if it's her first or second game. She came to me and asked, 'Akka, I will do this. Have faith in me, Akka. Please give me (the ball). I will do it’," Sneha remembers with the same sense of awe she felt when Charani asked for the ball. "Whenever I think about her, this will come to my mind. She was playing her first few T20s with the senior team. She was so confident. She wanted me to give her bowling. That will always be stuck with me," she adds.
And it is not just Sneha, anyone within the cricketing fraternity who has seen or interacted with Charani will circle back to one thing – her confidence. While it may come as a surprise to people who see her for the first time, not for Kishore and Kiran Reddy – Charani's mamas (uncles). It is a trait she has carried, and so has her sister who is working in the US, from the days of playing gully cricket — she used to bowl fast — with Kishore as a kid.
Despite her love for the sport, Charani took to athletics first while studying at the DAV school in Rayalaseema Thermal Power Station (RTPC), Kadapa district, where her father Chandra Shekar Reddy works. She played kho-kho, badminton, and was also a 3K runner. "She came to Hyderabad for athletics selections at the SAI training centre in Gachibowli and did well. She continued to train there for a while as well," Kishore recalls in a conversation with The New Indian Express. That is where former chief selector MSK Prasad, who occasionally visits the facility, spotted her and suggested she take up cricket.
At this point, Charani was already in Class X and had never taken professional cricket training. Charani came back home and said she wanted to play cricket. While her mother supported the decision, her father, Chandra Shekar, was not convinced. "He felt that in athletics, her results were in her control and efforts, which is not necessarily the case in a sport like cricket. But Charani stood firm and said that she wants to stick to cricket and that is her main goal. Eventually, after a year, he agreed, and then her journey with the sport started during the Covid pandemic," Kiran, Kishore's younger brother, adds.
When the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, Charani was around 16 years old. In general, cricketers who break through the ranks and come up start at a much younger age. Charani, however, is not like any other cricketer. She used all the years of training from athletics to add value in cricket — which came in handy as she was a gun fielder from the moment she took up the sport.
In fact, that is what caught the attention of the selectors during the zonal selection matches and brought her to coach Srinivas Reddy. "First, we were interested in her fielding only; she was the best fielder there," Reddy says. "In bowling, she needed consistency. Because she had started very late when it came to cricket. But she had come from a sports background, having played badminton, athletics, and it helped," he adds.
She used to juggle between Hyderabad and Kadapa while training during that time and the very next year, she broke into the Andhra U19 set-up where Reddy was the coach. Charani impressed enough people to make it to the U19 challengers in 2021, where she was a part of the India B team that won the title. It was during that tournament in Jaipur where she saw what it takes to be among the best in her age-group across the country, and it gave her confidence. That outing gave her fresh impetus to work harder, bowl that extra one ball, one over in the nets. "After seeing that, she built up her confidence. Her bowling really helped us. She used to bowl spot bowling. When it was the last ball, she always used to say, 'I want to do some more'. She is very hungry about bowling. It's all about working hard, work ethic, all those things. Whenever she gets time, she used to come to the ground first. And she used to be the last one to leave the ground," says Reddy, who also feels she can hit the ball long and can contribute with the bat.
Sneha remembers a senior women's one-dayer against Baroda where Andhra were down at 181/6, needing another 53 runs to win. Charani walked in, smashed an unbeaten 25-ball 35 and took the team home. "From then on, we understood that she was going to go places. That made everybody think that Charani is not an ordinary player. Within a year, she changed herself so much that everybody started talking about her. She brought that confidence in her by the work, not just by the words, the way she bowled, the way she batted and as a captain, I had faith that she could finish anything," says Sneha.
The other thing, both Reddy and Sneha attest to, is her quest to learn and know more. Whether it was Reddy in Andhra cricket or coach Lisa Keightley of Delhi Capitals in Women's Premier League — where Sneha and Charani were teammates — or Radha Yadav and Australian legend Jess Jonathan in the same franchise, Charani was always in their ears whenever she could while waiting for her chance to play.
"She is very innocent; whatever is on her mind, she will speak out despite being shy. And when I saw her in the WPL dressing room, she was very confident. She told me, 'Akka, if I get a chance now, I am sure I will do well'. I could see that in her net sessions as well. She was so keen to work hard, to learn new things. She was having conversations with everybody, especially Radha and JJ (Jonassen). I have seen JJ teach her some technical aspects of bowling, which helped her. And she was always with Lisa to work. Lisa used to help her so much," Sneha explains.
And that "one chance" Charani was waiting for came along in the 2025 WPL, where she took two wickets against Royal Challengers Bengaluru, including that of Richa Ghosh. In the final against Mumbai Indians, she again took two wickets, including England skipper Nat Sciver-Brunt. In the very next month, she was on a flight to Sri Lanka with the Indian team for the tri-series featuring the Island nation and South Africa.
On April 27, 2025, she became the first woman from YSR-Kadapa district to play for India. Even there, she was unfazed by the stage, taking 2/26 in eight overs against Sri Lanka. She went on to make her T20I debut in England, and before she knew it, Charani was in the squad for the ODI World Cup in India. One could sense the pride in the voices of Reddy, Sneha, Kishore and Kiran when they talk about Charani and what her growth means to them. "Kishore used to go to the domestic matches. We have never seen her play from the ground. We are very excited about the World Cup. Charani should do well, anthe (that's all). Her sister, Vaishnavi Charitha, is also coming from the US. We will all be cheering for her," Kiran could not hold the excitement about the possibility of Charani playing in front of the family at Visakhapatnam during the World Cup.
Though Sneha and the Andhra team will not be in the city to watch her because of the domestic tournaments, they will be cheering for the 21-year-old to shine in the limelight. "We all dreamt of playing for the country. Everybody wanted to play the World Cup. She got that opportunity. One (person) from us, one of my teammates is playing there. Not just me. Everybody is so happy. I am not able to convey. We are seeing ourselves in her. If she does well. We feel like we are doing well," says an elated Sneha.
Shortly after she made her T20I debut, Charani spoke about her journey to BCCI.tv. She keeps repeating one thing throughout that three-and-a-half-minute video: "I just want to go out in the middle and play." As Charani takes the field for India in a home World Cup over the next few weeks, no matter where they are, Chandra Shekar, Kishore, Kiran, Reddy, Sneha and all her family and friends will be rooting for her, and live vicariously through her. For it is one of their own, who will be out in the middle, living her dream.