Reliability, strength, and self-assurance. In order to lead India to victory in the T20 World Cup next month, Shafali Verma hopes to integrate the three lessons she has learned at various points in her career.
Her “natural game” was power; she possessed it all the time. She has become more consistent, as evidenced by her first international century in June of this year. She also hopes to draw on the confidence she earned from being third in scoring at the Under-19 T20 World Cup last year and helping India to victory.
“Last year’s Under-19 World Cup will serve as inspiration,” Shafali said to ESPNcricinfo during a recent QUA brand shoot in Delhi. “Obviously, the fact that we won an ICC trophy was really significant for Indian women’s cricket. I will draw confidence from it, which was the greatest moment of my life, in order to help us win the T20 World Cup this year as well.
“Right now, winning the [World Cup] trophy is our top priority. The game includes records and individual goals. However, nothing makes me feel better than when your team wins, and on such evenings, I sleep well.”
Shafali has participated at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru, where the Indian squad has been training ahead of the T20 World Cup, which will be held in Sharjah and Dubai from October 3 to October 20. Since she didn’t make the Hundred and didn’t enter the WBBL draft for the next season, she hasn’t played any competitive cricket since the T20 Asia Cup in July. Instead, she has been using this time to improve herself in a variety of ways.
“I’m not playing the WBBL and the Hundred because I’m working on my fitness and mental levels,” she stated. “But even when I played those tournaments, I learnt that fitness is very important because if you want to play long knocks then having good fitness is extremely important.”
Shafali’s recent double-hundred against South Africa in the home Test in June was one of her long knocks.
“That day I told myself I had to play a long innings, and not let that opportunity go,” she recalled. “Such knocks are so uncommon, and I don’t know how many tough times and battles I went through before then. However, I wanted to play for as long as possible that day because everything was going smoothly.”
“I used to just go out and hit at the beginning of my career, but now I’ve made some changes mentally,” she stated in reference to consistency. I can now play along the ground and block a few deliveries in addition to the game. Once you adjust your mental approach to the game, you become more reliable.
“That day I told myself I had to play a long innings, and not let that opportunity go,” she recalled. “Such knocks are so uncommon, and I don’t know how many tough times and battles I went through before then. However, I wanted to play for as long as possible that day because everything was going smoothly.”
I can now play along the ground and block a few deliveries in addition to the game. Once you adjust your mental approach to the game, you become more reliable. I want to continue being this consistent and do
“I used to chase after every ball during my first World Cup, the 2020 T20 World Cup. Such an approach could be effective early in your career, but eventually the competition will begin to analyze your footage and figure out your strengths and shortcomings. Even if I didn’t perform well in the 2023 T20 World Cup, I still gained a lot of knowledge from it.
People are now mentioning that I’ve become more constant, and during the past three to four years, I’ve realized how crucial consistency is. At the age of 20, I aim to improve upon the knowledge gained over the last three to four years.”
Shafali unique selling point has been her power hitting, which she hasn’t wanted to give up since her early days in the Women’s T20 Challenge, which led to her India debut at the age of 15 in 2019.
“These kinds of things you learn from an early age and I have worked a lot on it,” she stated. “It comes rather easy to me now. However, that doesn’t mean that you can get by without putting forth a lot of effort. You should concentrate on your strengths in addition to your deficiencies. In actuality, I learned this in my early years, so it comes easily to me now.”
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