It’s hard to remember sometimes that Shafali Verma is just 20 years old. It feels like she’s been around forever.
Since her debut in 2019, Shafali has built on the image of a trigger-happy six hitter, opening the innings with a starkly opposite Smriti Mandhana, known more for her orthodox and elegant stroke play.
Much has changed about this Rohtak-born batter in her nascent career. She has learnt to expand her striking arc, worked on running between the wickets and a nagging weakness for the short ball, and even her hairstyles. But what hasn’t, is that quintessential Haryanvi swagger.
Her unfiltered quality is something broadcasters and reporters love her for. You can dish out a great copy if she comes for a press conference.
In Chennai, after she slashed a double ton, a 197-ball 205 – the fastest double century in women’s Tests – broadcasters pointed out that she had fallen nine runs short of Mithali Raj’s 214, the highest individual score by an Indian woman in the format.
“Pata hota toh upar jaati thoda sa (If I had known, I would have gone past it a bit),” Shafali said with a straight face. Smriti, who was standing beside her, burst into laughter. As superstar athletes, one is expected to ‘behave,’ to be measured with one’s words. That’s not Shafali and thank God for that.
Patience in aggression
Shafali’s innings in Chennai was unlike what the nation has seen her do over the years. While her trademark onside play was there for all to see, she consciously attempted straighter shots and widened her arc to access cover and mid-off with greater frequency. She showed maturity to let the troublesome, drifting balls be and give each delivery and the bowler the respect they deserved.
India’s Shafali Verma plays a shot during the lone test match against South Africa at M.A Chidambaram Stadium, Chepauk in Chennai on June 28, 2024. | Photo Credit: B JOTHI RAMALINGAM/The Hindu
Of course, there is the asterisk of going up against the weakened bowling unit of South Africa that was without the services of Marizanne Kapp.
“I think it’s remarkable, the kind of restraint we saw from Shafali in this innings,” former India cricketer and selector Hemlata Kala tells Sportstar.
“These girls play T20 and 50-over cricket more and get an odd multi-day game here and there. To be able to show that mentality shift and patience to grind it out is by itself a big thing. She was able to leave the balls that didn’t have runs in them.”
“Even at the U-23 level, Shafali used to score upwards of 150, much like Virender Sehwag. If we had tried to curtail Viru, our cricket history would have been very different. Her game is to give teams an advantage in the PowerPlay and aggression fits into that role quite perfectly. If not, we would have seen that 200 maybe in 300 balls rather than 197 balls,” Hemlata, who is part of the Delhi Capitals coaching unit in the Women’s Premier League (WPL), says.
Hemlata was part of the Indian team and the Test match against England in Taunton when a 19-year-old Mithali Raj wowed the world with her double century on Test debut. It was far from the explosive one-day miracle Shafali managed — a 407-ball, nearly 10-hour-long affair.
“In our era, the game was played slower but it’s not down just to the players. Lot of elements were different then and now. The wickets were slower. The tracks are much flatter now and better for batters. The generation now gets more cricket. We used to play one series in a year and maybe around five to seven games in a year only, but now the side gets more than three to four a year in addition to the franchise games. With all that, that 200 twenty years ago was a lot harder to hit,” she explains.
“That said, the challenge of scoring a double ton remains the same across eras. In a game of patience, to play at this pace and get to a score like that, requires the player to back their abilities which is what Shafali did. We won’t have a 200 to discuss if she didn’t have faith in her own style and back herself. Very few players stand by their preferred way to play cricket and that really sets Shafali apart from the rest.”
When Shafali wowed crowds in Chennai with her hybrid hitting style, her academy coach Ashwani Kumar — who trains budding cricketers at the Shri Ram Narain Cricket Club in Rohtak — was on a holiday in Leh and Ladakh. It took an ecstatic call from Shafali’s father for him to catch up with his ward’s exploits.
“Shafali came to me at the age of 11-12. She was innocent but very unbothered about things in life. No fear, no nervousness,” Ashwani tells Sportstar.
“She was very brave. She showed no hesitation in going up against the senior girls in the camp. In no time, we started training her with U-19 boys and she enjoyed that. She has a very carefree style of play and likes hitting big,” he remembers
Ashwani is a former Ranji player and, naturally, Tests are sacrosanct. Seeing his student succeed in that format brings him great joy. Ever since she made her Test debut against England in 2021, Shafali – who for long has struggled to convert her T20 heroics to the ODI game – found solace in the relative infinity of Tests, with three fifties and a double ton under her belt in just five matches.
Her dismissal on 96 in that Bristol game is fresh in Ashwani’s mind.
“She must have thought that she’ll get to the milestone with a boundary or a six the way Sehwag has always done. ODI and T20 games have squads that go in with depth in batting or at least have all-rounders who can see the innings to completion. But it doesn’t work in Tests. Batters have to bat long, fight opposition, conditions and their own itches to score to stay in the middle. It’s easy to forget that demand of the format when the diet today is primarily of limited-overs cricket,” he says.
That dismissal, an attempted glory shot which saw her slice to mid-off only hole out to Anya Shrubsole off Kate Cross’ bowling, was fresh for Shafali too.
“Who forgets getting out for 96?” she smirked as she dissected her feat for reporters in Chennai.
“Today, when I was on 96, it took me back to Bristol. All I thought was about somehow scoring those four runs and getting past 100. Around my double century, thank god the off-spinners came on. I thought, ab maza hai (now this is fun) as I could get to my 200 in fewer deliveries,” she had said then.
Making of a legend
Former India captain Mithali Raj, the first Indian double centurion in women’s Tests, was keeping tabs on the youngster’s exploits while saddling commentary duties for the Men’s T20 World Cup.
Her first memory of the explosive opener is from the domestic scene many moons ago.
“My dad would always tell me that if I have to break through in the Indian team, I have to do something different. He had seen every player at every position and he said I could open but I should be someone who open and hit well because it was a style of player the team had not seen. So my dad kept teaching me to hit big. I used to play with a damp leather ball that would barely travel a few feet after being hit. I worked a lot with that. I used to do a lot of my training with boys. My sixes would look so small before them, but I would hit anyway. ”SHAFALI VERMAON JIO CINEMA
“She got a 50+ score against Railways in Vijayawada many years back. There were very few players, in the domestic setup at least, who posed a challenge to the Indian Railways bowling attack at that point of time,” Mithali tells Sportstar.
“She was a bit one-dimensional back then. She would score primarily on the onside. But she had raw power for a youngster.”
Shafali Verma batting for Velocity during the Women’s T20 Challenge in Sharjah in 2020. | Photo Credit: SPORTZPICS
The pair shared a dressing room for Velocity in the Women’s T20 Challenge — the exhibition tournament that preceded the WPL — before becoming India teammates.
“In one season, there was a conversation with the coach about maybe benching her for the final because she needed improvement on the field. When the ball was travelling next to her, she wouldn’t even bend. At the time, I remember saying that if she gives us a head start, then I can manage around the field,” Mithali says..
“We’ve never had an opener like that ever in the Indian team or the Railways. As a captain, I just wanted to see how you know a quick start would help the team especially in the T20 format. That’s why she made her debut in the T20s first and then the ODIs later.”
“I guess records break all the time but it doesn’t pinch at all as long as it’s broken by someone in your own country. If it was someone from another country going past that mark, I wouldn’t have liked that so much. ”Mithali Raj on Shafali Verma nearly bettering her top score in women’s Tests
Reality check
Shafali’s popularity hit a new high during the 2020 T20 World Cup in Australia. The team cruised into the final courtesy some sublime batting from the youngster – just 14 T20Is old before heading into the event – eager to leave her mark on the world’s biggest stage.
With more than 86,000 people at the MCG for the final between India and Australia, the stadium became a colosseum with a star waiting to be born, the legitimacy of silverware behind her.
Shafali Verma looks dejected after being dismissed by Australia’s Megan Schutt during the ICC Women’s T20 Cricket World Cup Final at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on March 8, 2020 in Melbourne. | Photo Credit: GETTY IMAGES
However, it wasn’t to be. Shafali buckled. India buckled and the youngster, then only 16 years of age, was inconsolable.
“Sachin Tendulkar famously said that nervous energy draws performances out of you,” Ashwani points out.
“When things are good, all is well, but in the bad phases, it’s your confidence that can carry you through.That comes from caring about your game and thinking about how you can improve. Befikri nahin, fikr se aati hai (it comes from caring, not from being carefree).”
“That T20 World Cup in 2020 was maybe the one time I saw her sink into a shell a bit. At the Haryana Cricket Association, Anirudh Chaudhary (a BCCI office bearer and key member of the state association) brought a sports psychologist to work with Shafali and help her get out of that phase.”
“That experience was important. She needed to realise how important she is to the team and the responsibilities that are there on her shoulders.”
Starting out, Shafali was a twitchy teenager at the crease, constantly moving around in trying to find a way to dispatch the ball out of the ground. This also threw up errors in judgement of line and length at times which triggered a dismissal.
Across two WPL campaigns, Shafali has scored 561 runs at an average of 35.06 and at a strike rate of 168.46. She scored more sixes in the 2024 edition (20) compared to last year (13). She also revealed that she was working on more stability at the crease.
This is an area of improvement she continued to prioritise during the South African series too.
“I get the throw down specialist to bowl underarm to me and I try and figure my shots with one hand, my leading arm and try and be as steady as possible. The tendency of the trailing arm to control ends up twisting the grip and producing a different shot itself. So the idea is to middle the ball with the one hand (the leading arm) and keep the head and shoulders as steady as possible. The idea is also to draw some confidence that if I can manage to hit well with one hand then I can build on that well with two,” Shafali told Veda Krishnamurthy on broadcast.
Grounding
More international cricket, the support of a calming influence like Smriti at the other end when on national duty and brushing shoulders with international stars in the WPL has allowed Shafali the privilege of perspective.
After the T20I series where Shafali and Smriti seamlessly took the Protean attack to the cleaners, Smriti broke down their partnership in simple terms.
“I think with Shifu, the best she bats is when she doesn’t think a lot. You don’t give a batter a lot of information. The only conversation from the non-striker end is when she tries to hurry up stuff, I just say, stay.”
Shafali had a similar grounding presence in Meg Lanning – the most decorated captain in the history of the game — during the WPL. Better communication, purposeful running and better game presence were areas of learning for the youngster.
Delhi Capitals skipper Meg Lanning (left) and Shafali Verma (right) during the Women’s Premier League match against Gujarat Giants at Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi on March 13, 2024. | Photo Credit: SHIV KUMAR PUSHPAKAR / The Hindu
In a world where videos of your best and worst innings are everywhere, a more self-aware Shafali is the need of the hour for India, with two World Cups coming up in subcontinent conditions.
“A lot of people, a lot of coaches talk about natural game, but what does that mean?” Mithali asks.
“As a middle-order batter, I had time to come in and read the situation and react. But Shafali plays as an opener. She has to create the situation. It can’t always be about that one aspect - natural game.”
While her explosive form bodes well for India in Bangladesh, the bigger picture will be her mindspace ahead of the 50-over World event in India next year. The faith shown in her by the team and the wise voices she has around her might be able to help her out of her ODI funk. This resilient Test double ton, one she holds high in her top career memories, could be fuel when the going gets tough.
“It comes down to being comfortable and prepared in the role given to you. She’s opening, sent out to maximise the PowerPlay. Aggression is necessary. There are things she can improve on like her shot selection which can add layers to her game,” Hemlatha points out.
“Alyssa Healy is quite similar. She might have poor scores in six out of 10 games, but the four games she fires in, Australia wins, because of what she brings to the table. Shafali is cut from the same cloth.”
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