Deepti Sharma has eight Asia Cup wickets for 14 runs, and it moved her up two places
India’s two spinners now sit first and sixth in the ICC women’s T20I bowling rankings, two days before a semi-final whose opponent was still being decided on Tuesday night.
Sep 8, 2026
Deepti Sharma’s eight wickets at this Asia Cup have cost 14 runs. That is an average of 1.75 across three innings, and in Tuesday’s ICC rankings update it moved her up two places to sixth in the women’s T20I bowling list.
Eight wickets for 14 runs
Read that number again, because a bowling average under two in a T20 tournament is not something that turns up often. India played Thailand, Hong Kong and Pakistan in Group A and won all three, and Deepti had a hand in every one of them.
She has been here before. Deepti was the top-ranked T20I bowler in the world in December 2025, so this is a climb back rather than a first arrival, and she is now inside 60 rating points of the player at the top.
The player at the top is also an India spinner
N Shree Charani has held the No. 1 spot since June, when she reached it for the first time in her career midway through the T20 World Cup, having taken ten wickets in her first three appearances at that tournament. She has kept it through the Asia Cup.
Charani has seven wickets in Dubai from three matches. The best of them came against Pakistan on 5 September, four overs for seven runs and three wickets, which won her the player-of-the-match award in a game Pakistan were bowled out of for 55.
Two India spinners at first and sixth in the world rankings is a slightly absurd position for a team that used to be talked about mainly for its batting. Smriti Mandhana leads the run-scoring in Dubai with 152, and the winning margins of 94 runs, 137 runs and seven wickets were still built on how little the spinners gave away.
India play a semi-final on Thursday and do not yet know against whom
India finished Group A unbeaten with a net run rate of 5.471, which is what happens when you dismiss opponents for 65, 56 and 55. The first semi-final is at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Thursday 10 September, 5.30pm Indian time.
Their opponent is whoever finishes second in Group B. Sri Lanka won that group with three wins, and Bangladesh and the United Arab Emirates were level on points going into their match on Tuesday night, which decides the other semi-final place. Pakistan play Sri Lanka in the second semi-final on Friday, and the final is on Sunday 13 September.
What the ranking actually rewards
Ranking points move slowly, which is why a two-place jump is worth more than it sounds. Deepti has been a T20I regular for a decade, and the four bowlers still between her and Charani are Sophie Ecclestone, Charlie Dean, Nonkululeko Mlaba and Lauren Bell.
None of it counts for anything on Thursday. India have won seven of the nine Asia Cups played before this one and Sri Lanka still beat them in the 2024 final, and an average of 1.75 across three group games against Thailand, Hong Kong and Pakistan is a different examination from a semi-final.