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Hans India
40 minutes ago
- Sport
- Hans India
Wiser, sharper and hungrier: Shafali Verma's next chapter as India player set to begin in England
New Delhi: In September 2019, a teenager with a jaw-dropping bat swing and a fearless attitude lit up Indian cricket. Shafali Verma, then just 15, exploded onto the international scene with a power game that left many opposition bowlers rattled. But in sports, evolution is inevitable, and in Shafali's case, it became essential. As India kick off its five-match T20I series against England in Nottingham, Shafali, now 21, returns to the national fold with the same aggression, but now layered with wisdom, sharpness in the game and a desire to get bigger scores at the international level. Dropped from the national set-up for almost eight months after last year's T20 World Cup and lean scores in subsequent ODI series against New Zealand, Shafali's tough times deepened as her father Sanjeev suffered a heart attack and was in the hospital. With the domestic season looming and Sanjeev pushing her through practice despite his own recovery needs, Shafali rigorously trained, improving fitness and honing her skills to now be back in national reckoning. The results have been there to see: Shafali was the leading run-scorer in the 2024/25 Senior Women's One-Day Trophy via 527 runs coming at an average of 75.29 and strike rate of 152.31. The Senior Women's One-Day Challenger Trophy was the next tournament to bring up big runs - 414 runs, at an average of 82.8 and strike rate of 145.26. A steady showing for Delhi Capitals in the 2025 Women's Premier League (WPL) - Shafali amassed 304 runs from nine innings with a strike rate of 152.76 – to be the side's leading run-getter. All of this was enough for Shafali to get back into the Indian team, albeit for the T20I tour. 'Everyone here is feeling good with her return to the Indian team and hopefully, she will do well. Our HCA camps, trainers, coaches - all of us had a role to play. Whenever she came to the academy, she spent time working on her game with us.' 'As they say in Bollywood terms, the superb first show on a film's release day, her entry in the Indian team was very much in that way. But as compared to the explosion she made suddenly in 2019, she is now back in the team with maturity and is keen on taking full responsibility in terms of how a senior player should play, and this is kind of hope everyone has from her now,' said Ashwani Kumar, Shafali's coach at the Shri Ram Narain Cricket Club in Rohtak, to IANS. Expanding on Shafali's development, Ashwani, a former Ranji Trophy player, highlighted her focus on shot selection. 'It happens many times that early shot selection wouldn't let her carry forward in the innings. But if you are against good bowling which is more aggressive all of a sudden, then how would you tackle that mentally - we chatted around these things and she took it very seriously.' Though Shafali continued to play her swashbuckling big hits, there was a visible restraint - an effort to value her wicket and bat deeper into the innings. According to Milap Mewada, fielding coach at Delhi Capitals in WPL 2025, this is precisely the next step in her evolution as an opening batter. 'No doubt in T20, you look to hit almost every ball and if you play 50 T20 games, there are 2-3 opportunities where you will bat for at least 20 overs as an opener. So I would love to see if she plays 65 balls at least in these T20 games. I want to see her play long first, and put a tag on her wicket, and don't give her wicket easily.' 'When a player gets dropped once or twice, then they realise the value of the India comeback. So I feel whatever happened was good, and I always believe that she will take learnings of last few months very far in her career. So the India T20I comeback has been very timely.' 'I feel her return to Indian team has happened at the right time because in WPL, she was scoring high. No doubt, 2-3 times she got out on 40s, but if she understands how to pass through that event, where she would often lost her wicket, then she can go for another 40-50 runs,' Mewada told IANS. Another important factor Mewada, who came off a stint with Afghanistan senior and emerging teams as their batting coach, noticed about Shafali was her putting in hard yards to counter her issues against short balls. 'While at DC, she was working on facing short balls and the ones going above abdomen height, as facing them was a little difficult for her previously.' 'But at the same time, she didn't get out that much of it. In T20s, even the bowler has limited overs and balls to bowl. So she was trying to elevate herself and optimise this situation - so that was a good sign.' That ability to play a longer innings - along with the importance of strike rotation to build her innings - could be Shafali's ticket to India's ODI team, especially in a World Cup year. Though Pratika Rawal and Harleen Deol are in India's top order alongside Smriti Mandhana, Ashwani agrees the T20I series against England could shape Shafali's path for coming back into ODIs. 'The performances in this series hold huge importance in terms of her coming back to the ODI team. When people are tasked with making a comeback to the national team, a lot of them will say that something wrong happened with them due to this or that. But she understood it well why she got dropped and credit goes to her.' 'Here, the biggest principle of coaching is when a child knows what mistake she is making, then she has a chance to improve. If the children or anyone else does not know what mistake was made or is not ready to accept it, then the scope of improvement and comeback ends there,' says Ashwani. Mewada too expressed a similar sentiment. 'For how long did all the in-form openers in IPL 2025 lasted in their innings? They played nearly till the end or few lasted till the 20th over. If Shafali plays 15 or 16 overs in T20Is, she can even score a hundred.' 'She can capitalise on the powerplay and then play for long, which in turn will get her a chance to play in ODIs. I believe if she gets a start, then she should take it forward. When at DC, I would see her batting and thank God for making a very good player like her,' he added. While Shafali's batting is outstanding, Mewada notes that her fitness and fielding remain areas of further improvement. 'Suppose if I want to improve my fitness, I have to sweat out. If someone else sweats out, I cannot improve my fitness, and so I will have to work hard for that.' 'In the next 2-3 years, if her fitness improves, then her fielding will improve. For that, she has to conceive a pro-level thought process. But at the same time, she has a very good pair of safe hands. No matter how fast a batter hits a shot, she catches it easily because she is not afraid of catching it. But the only thing is her movement part which depends on her fitness.' 'Like going from point A to point B, how much time does she take to go? So that time if she can minimise, through improved fitness and speed, she will be the number one fielder. Then her running between wickets will be good and speed of reaching the ball will increase in fielding.' 'She can be a wonderful fielder because her pair of hands are safe. But she has to push herself for a lot of fitness training and have that mentality of 'I should be the fittest in the Indian team'. Shafali is like a jet engine who needs jet fuel to run her plane – and then only she can soar higher in all aspects of the game,' he elaborated. Shafali's strong performances in the T20I series against England could lead to her return to the Indian ODI team, a decision the Neetu David-led selection committee will then have to make before the World Cup takes centrestage. It's because no other female cricketer in India can rival Shafali's extraordinary abilities with the bat. The fireworks with the bat are still there - but now, there's a spark of something steadier, as England might witness the start of a new and mature chapter of Shafali's career as an Indian cricketer.
NDTV
an hour ago
- Sport
- NDTV
India Comeback Star Reveals Sachin Tendulkar Inspiration: "Important To Respect..."
The returning Shafali Verma says watching videos of Sachin Tendulkar's batting in Test cricket, when she was not in the scheme of things, helped her understand the importance of playing each ball on merit. Closely observing Tendulkar's knocks played a part as she got down to plot her comeback into the Indian women's team after being dropped last year due to poor form. "Earlier I used to think of scoring a four or a six off every ball, but then I realised that it's important to give respect to a good ball. I saw Sachin (Tendulkar) sir's Test innings and got a lot of motivation from that," Shafali told BCCI Video ahead of the white-ball series opener against England in Nottingham. "It reminded me of my childhood days when I used to not even miss a single game of his. I covered almost every match again. Watching that, I learned that the only way to build a good innings is by respecting the good deliveries." Excellent performance in domestic cricket and Women's Premier League (WPL) paved the way for her comeback. The 21-year-old said that that comebacks are never easy and it became all the more tough after her father suffered a heart-attack just 10 days before the team selection last year. Shafali got dropped for the three-match ODI series against Australia in November after a poor run of form. "Whenever you make a comeback you encounter tough situations, but when you are back in the team environment, it is a very good feeling. I am very happy that I could make a comeback. "Just 10 days before my selection (for the series against Australia), my dad suffered a heart-attack. That was a very tough situation for me and after that I did not get selected in the team. I did not know what was happening. "I worked on my fitness for 20-25 days. I picked up the bat after 20-25 days and I felt very good. That gave me a different kind of energy, a different feeling. Time teaches you a lot of things. I will do my best and leave the rest to destiny." With time, her father's condition also improved and he was able to help Shafali out with her training. "After my dad recovered, he made me work a lot on my fitness before the domestic season. It was an up-down period for me, and I think it's important to face such situations as only then you can become a strong person." Shafali added that the time away from the national side taught her the value of cherishing the good moments. "If a player has savoured good days, he or she should also be ready for bad days. One should be ready to digest both, and only then you can become a star," said Shafali, who last played a T20I during the Women's T20 World Cup in 2024. When she was not in the national team, Shafali made up her mind not to miss any opportunity to score runs in domestic cricket. "I though wherever I get an opportunity, I will only think about scoring runs. I am not going to think about the future. And then WPL came. I said to myself that I will remain only in the present and forget about the future. Being in the present was the biggest motivation for me. "When my name came for the T20 series against England, my dad said 'only focus on your work, and leave the rest to destiny'. "I think, this is the time to win the series in England. I've played here before so I know the factors (that influence the game) well. Getting the jersey back after a long time is a moment to cherish."
Time of India
17 hours ago
- Sport
- Time of India
1st T20I: India women eye bright series with broader picture of World Cup in mind
India women will be keen to internalise the conditions and character of venues in England ahead of next year's World Cup here during the five-match T20I series against the hosts, beginning with the opening game on Saturday. The ICC showpiece is almost a year away, but this series is a perfect stepping stone after their disappointing group stage exit from the last year's edition. The management will try to draft in some initial ideas about the peculiar playing surfaces and the fickle weather pattern that jointly make playing cricket a unique experience in England. The rubber might also give the think-tank an inkling on the kind of players who could potentially make an impact here. The return of explosive opener Shafali Verma apart, India have added some new names such as Kranti Goud, Sree Charani and Sayali Satghare into their squad. Live Events Shafali, in all likelihood, will be paired with Smriti Mandhana at the pole position where Uma Chetry failed to impress as an opener in the few matches she played. This is India's first T20 assignment of the year, and the return of off-spin all-rounder Sneh Rana and fast bowling all-rounder Amanjot Kaur will be keenly watched. Rana is coming back to the side since February 2023, and her confidence has been boosted by a fruitful outing in this year's Women's Premier League (WPL). However, India will miss the experience of pacers Renuka Singh and Pooja Vastrakar, who are out of this series with respective injuries. Therefore the team management will hope that the young names will step up, and they know the challenges of playing England at their home. The visitors have lost both their practice matches - a 50-over and a T20 game - to the ECB Development Squad, and they will be up against a formidable team led by the talismanic Nat Sciver-Brunt. The home side has several experienced stars in their ranks such as Amy Jones, Tammy Beaumont, Danny Wyatt-Hodge and Sophie Ecclestone. Along with them, England will also field talented young players such as Issy Wong, Alice Capsey and Sophia Dunkley. In that context, India will require their premier batters like skipper Harmanpreet Kaur, Mandhana, Shafali, Jemimah Rodrigues and Richa Ghosh to be in their groove from the first match itself. Harmanpreet might also have regained her confidence after guiding Mumbai Indians to their second WPL title earlier this year, contributing with the bat and as the skipper. However, India will welcome some more runs from their batters lower down the order, who in the recent past have failed to shore up the team in some critical moments. Teams (from): India: Harmanpreet Kaur (C), Smriti Mandhana (VC), Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Richa Ghosh (wk), Yastika Bhatia (wk), Harleen Deol, Deepti Sharma, Sneh Rana, Sree Charani, Shuchi Upadhyay, Amanjot Kaur, Arundhati Reddy, Kranti Gaud, Sayali Satghare. England: Nat Sciver-Brunt (C), Em Arlott, Tammy Beaumont (wk), Lauren Bell, Alice Capsey, Charlie Dean, Sophia Dunkley, Sophie Ecclestone, Lauren Filer, Amy Jones (wk), Paige Scholfield, Linsey Smith, Danni Wyatt-Hodge, Issy Wong. Match starts at 7 pm IST.
New Indian Express
18 hours ago
- Sport
- New Indian Express
Amanjot 2.0: All-rounder Kaur determined to make a mark for India
CHENNAI: WHEN Amanjot Kaur walked onto the field at the SSN College Ground, Chennai on January 7 for Team E during the senior women's one-day challenger Trophy clash against Team A after an eight-month injury layoff, she did not feel nervous. Instead, Kaur was grateful to be back on the field. It was when a back stress fracture and a ligament tear in her hand put her out of action in April 2024, Kaur realised how much the sport meant to her. Like most players, recovery was not easy either. With so much time to kill, the mind may play havoc. Kaur had to adapt and started doing chores like making salad, painting and watching movies to keep herself busy and occupied during rehabilitation. And when she finally made a comeback, the Punjab all-rounder unleashed herself like never before. Even though her team did not make the final, she impressed with her bowling in the senior challengers and went on to play a crucial part in Mumbai Indians winning their second Women's Premier League title. An India comeback followed in Sri Lanka where she took back-to-back three-fers in the ODI tri-series. Now, Kaur is in England, hoping to make a mark as a genuine all-rounder in all three departments in the five T20Is and three ODIs that begin on Saturday. 'I am very excited but I have to control my emotions,' Kaur told this daily ahead of the England tour in May. 'I have to bowl according to the conditions and the team's requirements. It's not like if the conditions are good, I have to overdo with my swing. I want to continue from where I left in Sri Lanka and not leave it behind. No point in doing it in bits and pieces. I am very excited.' While it has been a memorable six months for Kaur, the road to getting to that point in Chennai began mid 2024. When the 24-year-old injured her hand during the Bangladesh tour in April 2024, it did not feel as bad. Even the MRIs and scans showed a grade two tear, but the pain was immense. It was only when she did an ultrasound, Kaur realised that her ligament got folded at the joint because of which she could not extend her hand. Coupled with the back pain she felt during training, Kaur reported to the Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru. She was not able to move properly. 'For a couple of months, I had to be on bed rest. I did not know what to do with all the time I had. I was cranky. The initial period was very tough. My family doesn't understand cricket. The injury was a big setback for them. We are in the circuit, so we know that the injury is part and parcel of the game. But my family did not get it. They think that there are six or eight months and there are so many other young players and someone will come in. They think from a different point of view,' the 24-year-old explained.
Hindustan Times
a day ago
- Sport
- Hindustan Times
Eng v Ind: Eyes on T20 World Cup 2026 prep
New Delhi: With the ICC Women's T20 World Cup less than a year away and set to be hosted in England, the five-match T20I series between England and India that begins on June 28 at Trent Bridge, arrives at a pivotal moment for both teams. The series offers a vital chance to test combinations, adapt to conditions and build momentum heading into a high-stakes year. Smriti Mandhana (right) and Harleen Deol . (@BCCIWomen) For India, it marks the beginning of their 2025 T20I calendar. The team hasn't played a T20I since their home win over West Indies in December and 2024 overall proved a rollercoaster. Despite bilateral success, it was marked by a heartbreaking Asia Cup final loss and an early exit from the T20 World Cup. However, many players levelled up during the Women's Premier League (WPL) and that recent form could prove crucial. Among the most anticipated returns is that of Shafali Verma who's likely to reclaim her spot at the top of the order after a strong domestic run and impressive WPL campaign for Delhi Capitals, having scored 304 runs in 9 matches. With the ODI World Cup also looming in September, this series could be a springboard for her selection into both formats despite the competition that exists in the 50-over format. India's squad will also see new faces in left-arm spinner N Shree Charani and seam all-rounder Kranti Goud. Pacer Sayali Satghare, seam all-rounder Amanjot Kaura have also been recalled. Offspinner Sneh Rana also earned a recall thanks to her consistent WPL performances. She also impressed with 1/47 and 2/28 in the warm-up matches against ECB Women XI at Beckenham. However, the absence of seasoned pacers Renuka Singh and Pooja Vastrakar leaves the pace unit thin on experience. The responsibility now shifts to Satghare and Amanjot, supported by Arundhati Reddy, to anchor India's seam attack. On the batting front, the top five remains settled and formidable. Smriti Mandhana, Shafali, Jemimah Rodrigues, Harmanpreet Kaur and Richa Ghosh provide a great balance of both stability and firepower. They will, however, be hoping for their all-rounders to step up with the bat as well. It will also be interesting to see whether the returning Harleen Deol and Yastika Bhatia also slot right back in. England, meanwhile, are already deep in preparation mode for the home World Cup. Under the new leadership duo of Nat Sciver-Brunt and coach Charlotte Edwards, they made a dominant statement earlier this month by sweeping both white-ball series against the West Indies 3-0. But Edwards has her sights firmly set on India, acknowledging that there lies a tougher challenge ahead. 'We absolutely know that, in a couple of weeks' time at Trent Bridge, that's going to be tough. They're one of the best teams in the world, they've got some of the best players, so we're going to have to be right on it when we get to the 28th of June. But we've taken a lot of confidence from this and that's the most important thing. We can only play what's in front of us and we'll look to do that again when we play against India,' she had said after the West Indies series win. The hosts welcome back world No. 1 T20I bowler Sophie Ecclestone, who rejoins the squad after a short break and missing the West Indies series. However, they'll be without former captain Heather Knight who is ruled out with a hamstring injury sustained during the West Indies series. She was England's leading run-scorer with 109 runs in 2 innings. Lauren Bell, meanwhile, was the leading wicket-taker with 7 wickets in 3 innings.
