Best Of Shafali Verma: Here's Looking At The Young Cricketers Achievements

Best of Shafali Verma: Shafali Verma has become a household name, courtesy of her exploits with the bat. Hailing from Rohtak, this child prodigy shot to fame in 2019 when she featured in the Women’s T20 Challenge, sometimes referred to as women’s IPL. The swashbuckling opening bat is a bundle of talent and there is no doubt that this young gun will go a long way.

Let us look at the best of Shafali Verma, who recently turned 17:

1. The right-hand opening bat is the youngest ever to play T20I cricket for India.

2. She is not just the youngest to represent India in the shortest format.

3. Shafali Verma is the youngest cricketer in the country to score an international fifty. By doing so, she broke the 30-year-old record of master blaster Sachin Tendulkar, who had scored an international half-century at 16 years 214 days of age. Verma was just 15 years 285 days old then. This feat was achieved against West Indies at Gros Islet on November 9, 2019. This was her fifth T20I for India. She smashed 73 off 49 and her innings was laced with half a dozen boundaries and four maximums. Her blazing knock powered the Women in Blue to a convincing 84-run win. In the same match, Shafali stitched a record opening partnership of 143 runs with Smriti Mandhana. The duo piled up the runs in just 15.3 overs.

4. Having played just 19 T20Is so far, she has taken the world of cricket by storm, courtesy of her fearless batting. In her short career so far, she has already ranked numero uno in ICC rankings and is the youngest Indian to top the charts.

A by-product of her aggressive batting is the rate at which she strikes. In the world of women’s cricket, Verma has the highest strike rate of 146.24 for a minimum of 450 runs scored. So far, she has scored 487 runs at an average of 27.05 and has a couple of half-centuries.

Last year, when India made it to the finals of Women’s World T20, Shafali had a major role to play. She was a vital cog in India’s batting wheel and she proved her worth as she went on to become the leading run-getter for India in the tournament. Verma scored 163 in five matches at a strike rate of 158.25, which was the highest in the competition.

Shafali’s aggression, confidence, grit, and ability to take on the best of the bowlers make her a player to watch out for in the long term.

Image Credit: ICC

This story was published first in Female Cricket. This story has been published with some editorial changes.