Shafali Verma was the biggest takeaway from the T20 World Cup, feels Mithali Raj
Mithali Raj is of the opinion that Shafali Verma, who emerged as the highest run scorer for India in the Women’s T20 World Cup, was the biggest positive from an otherwise fantastic campaign for Team India. Raj has also added that it was surreal to see a huge stadium like MCG packed to the rafters.
For the longest time, Mithali Raj was the biggest cricketing icon to have come out from the Indian women’s cricket circle, with her achievements becoming a huge part in the cricketing lore. Smriti Mandhana and Harmanpreet Kaur since took over but the aura that Shafali Verma left behind in the recently-concluded Women’s World Cup final was one of unadulterated promise. Living upto it would take a lot but she has already won over Raj, who retired from the shortest version of the sport last year.
“Shafali was the biggest takeaway from the T20 World Cup. The way she came into the Women's T20 Challenge, got those runs, not many 15-year-olds have that talent, if you ask me. And then in the World Cup, batting the way she did, the talent she exhibited in Australia - she took a lot of pressure off our batting department, and the way she was hitting the bowlers, in the future, the team, the public, will start expecting more from her,” Raj told The Cricket Monthly.
“She is a young kid, the people who influence her thoughts and actions, the influencers around her, have to be very good. In times of social media, when everything is being minutely watched and monitored, as a teenager it becomes very, very important to have parents and a mentor around. A teenager, for example, could get carried away by social media because it's a space where you get a lot of appreciation, a lot of attention, and all of that feels nice.”
Verma, a player of Virender Sehwag mould, bats with an open mind and priotises shot-making over classical batting display. With Mithali Raj’s time under the sun slowly approaching an end, and no one really to partner Smriti Mandhana with, she might be blooded into the ODI set-up sooner than later. And Raj seems welcoming of the idea.
“She is young but that should not be a criterion for not giving her opportunities. She could be a good addition to our ODI set-up, especially if she is able to give us the kind of starts she's been giving in T20Is, and if she can play a little longer, because the two formats are very different. Losing a wicket early in the innings in a 20-over game still won't pinch a team so much as it would in one-dayers.
“If Shafali can continue to work on her fitness and develop her temperament a little more - ODIs need that, and you can't go after every ball. Before the World Cup, if we get those three, four tours, we will have the opportunity to see how she approaches ODIs and we will be able to take a call on how we would integrate her into the ODI team and when to do that,” Raj concluded.
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