Following a string of low scores, BCCI selectors dropped Shafali Verma for the ODI series against Australia in December 2024. In the 2024 Women’s T20 World Cup, the youngster made 97 runs in four matches at a strike rate of 105.43 and in the three-match series against New Zealand, Shafali once again struggled, registering 33, 11 and 12 respectively.
Shafali recently revealed that she didn’t share the news of being dropped from the Indian team with her father, who had suffered a heart attack. The 20-year-old added that she only told her father a week later when he recovered.
“It’s not easy to get over it. I didn’t want to reveal because my father had a heart attack about two days before I got dropped from the team. I hid the news from him till he got better. He was in the hospital. I told him a week later,” Shafali told The Indian Express.
The selectors trusted Priya Punia to replace the Haryana-born in the series against Australia. The move didn’t work either as Praika Rawal soon replaced her in the playing XI. Since debut, Rawal has been phenomenal, scoring 444 runs in six matches at an average of 74. In the third ODI against Ireland, Rawal made 154 runs and became the third Indian cricketer to score over 150 in One Day Internationals.
Meanwhile, Shafali is playing domestic cricket and has been in fine form. In the two domestic tournaments she has played so far, the opener has amassed 527 and 414 runs in 12 matches, scoring three centuries and five fifties. On the other hand, her father Sanjeev Verma didn’t give himself enough time to recover as he returned to the field to train Shafali return to the national team.
“Father knows everything, sometimes as kids even we forget our strengths but they don’t forget. He reminded me of the workouts and drills from my childhood, and helped me to do the same. When I started, we had these knocking drills – where I play on-drive, straight drive and that’s what I worked on. These are my strengths and sometimes you need to work on them to remember how good you are at them,” Shafali said.
