Shafali Verma one to watch out in the future, states Leah Poulton
Australia A coach Leah Poulton believes that India opener Shafali Verma, who's taken women's cricket by storm at just 15 years of age, will be a star to watch out for in the future. Shafali, despite making her international debut just 3 months ago, has already become a mainstay in India's T20 side.
Be it Sachin Tendulkar or Mohammad Ashraful or Pat Cummins or Prithvi Shaw, every now and then, the sport of cricket unleashes teenage prodigies, who just bring the world to a standstill and steal everyone's attention with their sheer talent. The latest addition to this pack of players is Haryana's Shafali Verma, who, at just 15 years of age, has already been making headlines due to talent, power, skill and composure.
After her exploits with the Indian national team, Shafali was picked for India's A tour of Australia A towards the fag end of last year, and the youngster shook the home side on the very side match of the tour, striking a 78-ball 124. Australia A coach Leah Poulton lavished praise on the youngster and believes that she will be one to watch out for in the years to come.
"It was really good to watch, I did get into fan mode for a while there (during the century). She just had so much composure at the crease, she didn’t look fussed at all. She’s definitely going to be one to watch over the next few years," Poulton told cricket.com.au.
Unlike a Smirti Mandhana or Jemimah Rodrigues who are more classical and technically gifted, Shafali relies more on power hitting and vandalising the ball, a trait which Poulton believes makes her stand out from the rest.
"She’s not your typical Indian opening bat. Over the years they’ve produced these opening bats with these amazing techniques and they’re really crafty, whereas she walked out there and she was just pure power," explained the Australia-A coach.
Poulton then went on to recall how taken aback the whole Australia team were by Shafali's knock in the first game of the tour, despite having seen footage of her prior to the game. The Australia-A coach expressed her disbelief over the hitting ability of Shafali and expressed her admiration for the youngster's presence at the crease. Shafali struck 19 fours and 4 sixes in her knock of 124, one which eventually turned out to be a match-winning one.
"She’s just an amazing talent, she’s only 15 years old and she’s got so much power. We’d seen a bit of footage leading in, she’s played a bit of cricket for India. But when you watch footage of a player like that, it probably doesn’t do it justice because she’s actually got a really good presence at the crease. Even though she’s 15, she’s a tall girl, strong girl as well… when she walked out to bat, I thought, ‘that can’t be the 15-year-old’.”