SL-W vs IND-W | 2nd T20I | Preview | Spotlight: Shafali Verma

An Indian Women’s opener backing away to the leg side to pump the ball over long-off or clearing the mid-wicket boundary with utmost ease used to be a rare sight.

Come 2019, a 15-year-old prodigy from Haryana arrived on the scene to mesmerise everyone with her clean and swashbuckling batting. Yes, we are talking about none other than Shafali Verma.

Verma first came into the limelight in the Women’s T20 Challenge 2019. Representing Velocity, she slapped international bowlers through the off-side and over their heads at will. Her brisk 34 caught everyone’s eyes, and she soon made her India debut in September 2019 against South Africa.

With her debut, Verma became the youngest player to represent India in the shortest format. 

On November 9, 2019, Verma broke a long-standing record held by the great Sachin Tendulkar. She became the youngest cricketer to score an international half-century. This feat came against West Indies (73 off 49 balls) at a tender age of 15 years. 

The young Indian batter has also topped the ICC charts in the T20I format, which is nothing less than commendable. She has also made her debut in all three formats. The Rohtak girl put all apprehensions regarding her technique for Test matches to rest by scoring a stellar 96 on her debut against England.

Verma, who disguised herself as a boy during her childhood to play cricket and is set to serve the national team for years to come. Besides providing an aggressive start, she has also been honing her off-spin skills.

Watch her in action on June 25 as India Women take on the Sri Lankan Women in the 2nd T20I at Dambulla. The Indian team is 1-0 up in the series after an all-round effort in the first encounter and will look to take an unassailable lead with a win.

Match Details:

Match: Sri Lanka Women v/s India Women, 2nd T20I

Venue: Rangiri Dambulla International Stadium, Dambulla

Date & Time: June 25 at 2:00 PM IST

Live Streaming: FanCode 

Squads:

Sri Lanka Women: Chamari Athapaththu (c), Harshitha Madavi, Nilakshi de Silva, Vishmi Gunaratne, Hasini Perera, Udeshika Prabodhani, Oshadi Ranasinghe, Inoka Ranaweera, Sathya Sandeepani, Kaushani Nuthyangana, Anushka Sanjeewani, Rashmi de Silva, Kavisha Dilhari, Ama Kanchana, Hanshima Karunaratne, Achini Kulasuriya, Sugandika Kumari, Tharika Sewwandi, Malsha Shehani

India Women: Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Sabbhineni Meghana, Jemimah Rodrigues, Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Deepti Sharma, Pooja Vastrakar, Yastika Bhatia, Richa Ghosh, Poonam Yadav, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Simran Bahadur, Meghna Singh, Renuka Singh, Radha Yadav