Reports | Shafali Verma to play for Birmingham Phoenix in The Hundred

The inaugural edition of ‘The Hundred’ is shaping up to be an extremely enticing prospect for fans of Indian cricket as Shafali Verma will now reportedly join Jemimah Rodrigues, Harmanpreet Kaur, Deepti Sharma and Smriti Mandhana as the fifth Indian player in the competition. Shafali, the number one T20I batter in the world, has to date not played franchise cricket outside India, but ANI has reported that the 17-year-old wonderkid will be representing Birmingham Phoenix in the inaugural edition of the competition. Birmingham are captained by New Zealand’s Sophie Devine, and the franchise also boasts the likes of Ashleigh Gardner and Ellyse Perry.

"The reason behind the fast foot movement is the time I spent with the Haryana men's team ahead of the Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament. I cannot thank the Haryana Cricket Association enough for allowing me to train with the team. What it did was that it helped my decision-making power at the crease as I was facing fast bowlers who were touching close to the 140kph mark. So, I had that extra second to decide if I wanted to go back or play off the front foot when I played the T20I series," she told ANI.

The 17-year-old, who is widely regarded as a generational talent, also revealed that she worked on her fitness, and thanked the Haryana Cricket Association (HCA) for providing her with all the necessary facilities to train.

"Yes, I did work on my fitness during the time away from the game due to lockdown. Here too, cannot thank the HCA enough. Every player was catered to individually. Our needs were looked into and even for things like dumbbells, HCA ensured every player had equipment to train. At the top level, you need to be fit to perform.”