
Who Is Shree Charani? India's Left-Arm Spinner Making T20I Debut Against England
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Sree Charani received her maiden India cap from Sneh Rana ahead of the first T20I against England.
Sree Charani received her maiden India cap from Sneh Rana ahead of the first T20I against England at Trent Bridge in Nottingham on Saturday.
The 20-year-old left-arm spinner hails from the Kadapa district in Andhra Pradesh.
Congratulations to Sree Charani, who is all set to make her T20I Debut 👏👏She receives the 🧢 from Sneh Rana 👌👌
Updates ▶️ https://t.co/iZwkYt8agO #TeamIndia | #ENGvIND pic.twitter.com/0KnLjYcxbY
— BCCI Women (@BCCIWomen) June 28, 2025
Nallapureddy Shree Charani had caused a bidding war at the Women's Premier League auction and was eventually sold to Delhi Capitals for INR 55 lakh.
Who is Shree Charani?
Charani comes from Erramalle village in Veerapunayuni Palli mandal of Andhra Pradesh's Kadapa district. At just 20 years old, she became the first woman from the YSR-Kadapa region to be selected for the Indian women's cricket team. Initially guided towards badminton by her father while in class six, Charani also played kho-kho before eventually finding her passion for cricket.
Her father, Chandrasekhar Reddy, works at the Rayalaseema Thermal Power Project, while her uncle, Kishore Kumar Reddy, played a key role in encouraging her sports training. Inspired by cricket icons Smriti Mandhana and Yuvraj Singh, Charani was handed her WPL debut cap by Jess Jonassen. She took her first WPL wicket by dismissing Ellyse Perry.
In March 2025, she achieved her maiden five-wicket haul in first-class cricket while playing for India A against India B in the Senior Women's Multi-day Challenger Trophy at Dehradun's Rajiv Gandhi Stadium. Domestically, she represents the Andhra women's cricket team.
Charani earned her maiden India call-up in April 2025 for the ODI tri-series featuring Sri Lanka and South Africa. She made her ODI debut against Sri Lanka on April 27, 2025. The following month, she was named in both the ODI and T20I squads for India's tour of England and is making her T20I debut in Nottingham.
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He had the same reputation in these parts but the English loved his methodical approach to batting and appreciated his effort for the team cause. Do the Wardens also remember him as a stodgy batsman? 'He could be stodgy when he needed to be stodgy. But generally speaking, he was a batsman that took his time. He worked on the principle of batting a No.3. Most importantly, he was still there at the end and more likely than not, he'd won the game,' he says. Kotak's captain at Wardens, James Jordan, chips in. 'The only 100 I got in the league, when I joined in batting and he was on 50 but I beat him to 100. He batted slow!' Jordan laughs. Jordan remembers a peculiar match when the opposition packed the legside with all nine fielders. 'There was this one special thing about Kotak. He was very good on the leg-side and kept playing there. So this team called Wellington, they were playing here and we'd virtually won the game. So they put all nine players on the leg side and Kotak still hit it through the boundary for four runs.' An emotional summary lands from the captain. 'Kotak spent 20 years with the Kenilworth Wardens Cricket Club. He was a fantastic player, always committed to the club, and the quality of the man, he never let us down and gave us everything. He even played when he was injured. He'll always be our best friend and at the heart of this club. Yeah, I'm so proud to be here. His batting, coaching and passing on his knowledge of the game to others, that was what he was all about. I remember his hundred against Dorridge; they had this Australian bowler and a Warwickshire opening bowler but Kotak played with ease,' says Jordan. Paul Henderson, the man who batted after Kotak at No.4, too raves: 'He was so committed to the people and the players. He spent a lot of time coaching. We loved him as a player and as a person.' He also had a reputation of a deadly bowler too. 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The seeds of coaching were sown in Kotak at Kenilworth. After informally training juniors at Warden, he would take up the English Cricket Board coaching courses. This would prepare him for his second innings after retirement. As soon as he retired, Kotak was made the Saurashtra Ranji coach. He was also with IPL franchise side Gujarat Lions. In the Indian coaching system, Kotak has truly risen from the ranks. NCA, India A and now India batting coach – the graph has seen a steady rise. Malcolm said that the reason Kotak kept returning to Wardens and Kenilworth was the family-oriented nature of the place. All through those 20 years Kotak played here, he stayed at the home of one family – the Joshis. 'I think another reason, he liked to come here even after he got married, was he could spend time here with his family. India cricket kept him out for months. He used to come over with his wife, and then with one child, and then with two children,' says Malcolm. The Wardens club stint would help Kotak polish his new-ball batting and also his English, something that comes in handy as an international coach. But Kotak, always the firm batsmen, didn't change his eating or social habits. 'He's a vegetarian and doesn't drink alcohol. We used to try and persuade him to have a glass of wine about once a season. But it didn't work. He would sit with the boys, everybody would have alcohol and he would just smile and enjoy his soft drinks,' recalls Malcolm. Late in the evening, Kotak meets Malcolm and old mates. They talk about old times, the brotherhood of Wardens very much intact. There is praise for their mate and also leg-pulling. And that explains why the Wardens veteran was torn while watching the Test at Leeds. Does he back his Warden boy or England? In the end, it all worked out well. England won the game, the Indian batsmen, coached by the Wardens boy, scored many centuries.