Nandni Sharma, the standout debutant of the ongoing Women's Premier League, doesn't like tough questions being posed to her. But she thrives in tough game scenarios, where her compulsive need to crack a joke makes way for a serious gametime phase.

Nandni took to cricket as an 8-year-old, with a view to ape Akash, her 11-year-old brother who would go to cricket training to a nearby facility in Sector 26 in Chandigarh wearing the whites and carrying a kit. She joined his friends for recreational games on the street. As the only girl amidst a group of boys playing in the late 2010s, unsolicited advice from certain neighbours was to keep the girl away from the sport. But Nandni's bigger motivation was to prove herself worthy enough to tag along with her brother - in cricket whites - to a coaching academy.

Following her insistence, her parents agreed to send her for formal coaching, but the coach at the LIC Club, unsure of how to accommodate a girl so young with the rest of the older boys, allowed her to freely roam around without giving any serious cricket practice. Upset at not getting opportunities, she left the club within six months.

But only a few months later, cricket resumed at the same ground, with the Sacred Heart Senior Secondary School which had a girls' cricket team. It soon offered her her first moment to prove herself as a cricketer, when her school was pitted against LIC Club in an open girls tournament.

Nandni, bowling to much older girls of LIC Club, picked up three wickets, and played a big role in her team's victory. It was the first vindication of her skills, but soon followed by fear and embarrassment - how is she supposed to face the coach when she returns to LIC Club to further her prospects as a cricketer?

She doesn't like to be in such a spot.

One of her friends, irritated with her reluctance that evening, pushed her towards the coach, who was now happy to train a ready-for-cricket Nandni. The training at the clinic continued till it shut down in 2018.

During that time, her career progressed sharply. She could generate steep bounce, had learnt the use of bouncers, and was trained to bowl the outswinger by her brother and father. It allowed her a passage to the age-group teams of Punjab, and even a selection in a nation-wide camp at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru as a 15-year-old in the 2017/18 season. It is here that she saw some of her batchmates progress to the national team, and that lit the desire and belief in her to be alongside them.

Having grown up in a family where there were more cricket aspirants, Nandni's ambitions were in sync with her father and elder brother, both of whom had played district level cricket. They had to give up on the sport after a point to take up the financial responsibilities of the family. Shyam Sundar Sharma, her father, ran a small business. However, as the single-earning member of the family, having to handle the expenses of five kids, there were financial constraints that popped up several times.

"We never let Nandni feel that strain of financial challenges," Akash told Cricbuzz. "We wanted her to keep growing as a cricketer, because she enjoyed playing the sport. It was a collective decision of the family to let her work towards becoming a professional cricketer. We told her to keep playing and not worry about anything else. If financial challenges come up, we will handle it."

Only three games into the WPL, she has displayed her ability to handle pressure situations. To keep the run-flow in check in the death, and to even dismiss set international batters at crucial junctures. But given that she has made her WPL debut as a 24-year-old, Nandini's growth as a cricketer - especially given the early initiation into the sport - has been relatively slow.

A massive growth in her career happened after she joined the coaching academy of Sukhwinder Bawa in Chandigarh after the pandemic. Having to play alongside boys - who bowled at faster pace and had more time to hit Nandni's deliveries, she was forced to improve her skills. With the help of her brother and father, she developed a wide array of slower deliveries.

Even though it was a small stint under Bawa, it was at his coaching clinic that she was pushed to increase her pace as well as develop those slow-ball variations, which she has put to display with great impact in her debut WPL season. There is more to her bowling - the steep bounce, ability to clock in excess of 110 kmph and swing the new ball both ways.

Over the last couple of years, she has represented Chandigarh Women's senior team, North Zone in zonal one-day and multi-day tournaments and even played for India B. Much of her desire to make it to the Indian team seemed closer than ever when she was selected in the U-23 Emerging National Camp at the National Cricket Academy camp a couple of years ago, where she trained under Troy Cooley and improved on her inswinger.

Jemimah Rodrigues, the Delhi Capitals skipper, had hailed Nandni as the 'pick of the season'. In elaborating what made her special, she reiterated the 'challenge-ready' attribute of the pacer. "She's a captain's delight," Rodrigues had admitted. "Whatever you ask her to do, she's so accurate in doing it. The kind of mindset she has, she's ready to take it on. That's what makes her special"

While Nandini's family is delighted that she has made it to the WPL and shining bright with her skills, Akash admits that the big opportunity has come a little late in her career. Much of that delay has been due to recurring injuries, which are a part and parcel of a fast bowler's life.

Nandini had given a cryptic message - to aspiring fast bowlers in India - on the day she bagged a fifer against Gujarat Giants. "Never give up in life," Nandni had said. "There would be times when it would seem that everything is going bad. There would also be times when you would want to give up pace bowling. There would be times you would get injured. You have to fight all these moments and come back. Just never give up."

While Akash understands the strains of an aspiring cricketer looking to make it big, he doesn't know of what moment in her life she was hinting at with her statement, of what feelings she had suppressed from the rest of family all these years, or at what points she felt demotivated. It could be the injuries or the uncertainties of the future. He takes a few guesses, before repeating "I wouldn't know, she didn't show it to us at the time."

For them, she has just painted one picture all along - of being the "sabse shararti bachchi(the most notorious kid) of the family who wants to crack a joke at every opportunity."