Sandeep Sharma is an Indian Premier League veteran. He started his career in the tournament in 2013 and continues to be a part of it. The right-arm pacer has played 117 IPL matches, picking up 146 wickets at an economy of just over 8. So far, he has represented three IPL teams: Punjab Kings (2013-2017), Sunrisers Hyderabad (2018-2021), and Rajasthan Royals (2023-present). The fast bowler recently shared an interesting story from the 2017 IPL season when he was with PBKS.
The story involves a thoughtful gesture from PBKS (then known as Kings XI Punjab) co-owner Preity Zinta. In one of his last matches for the franchise that season, Sandeep returned figures of 3 for 22, helping his team defend a below-par total of 138 against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (then known as Royal Challengers Bangalore). He dismissed three of RCB's top-four batters: Chris Gayle, Virat Kohli, and AB de Villiers.
Sandeep, during an interview with CricTracker, said that Axar Patel's all-around performance of 38 runs off 17 balls and bowling figures of 3 for 11 put him at the top of the list of contenders for the Player of the Match award. However, the pacer revealed that Preity told Ravi Shastri that the honour should go to Sandeep because he took the crucial wickets.
"We were playing a match in Bengaluru against RCB. And I had taken three wickets with the new ball. Virat, ABD and Chris Gayle. So in that match, actually, the Player of the Match was supposed to be Axar Patel, who had also taken two wickets in that match and it was a low-scoring game. In the last over, he had scored 25 runs (19 runs) and scored 38 runs (in total). But the Player of the Match was his, if you look at it. So Preity ma'am was there and she told Ravi Shastri there that the Player of the Match should be Sandy, he has picked three big wickets," he said.
"And actually, they gave me the Player of the Match. That was one sweet thing. And I actually went and offered it to Axar. But, he told me that these three wickets were very important. Otherwise, 138 runs wouldn't have been defended anywhere," the pacer added.