Written by Nitin SharmaChandigarh | Updated: November 3, 2025 01:31 AM IST 5 min readWhen Shafali was dropped from the Indian team last year, the news had arrived just days after her father Sanjeev had suffered a heart-attack. (Express photo by Narendra Vaskar)Sanjeev Verma recalls the conversation with her daughter Shafali Verma last year, when the opener was dropped from India’s ODI squad for the tour to Australia. “I had told her, Koi dikkat nahi, aap practice karo and apka time ayega. Bus taiyar rehna (No problem. You focus on your practice and your time will come. The only thing is that you should be ready). And when she missed making it to the Indian team for the World Cup, I repeated the same words to her.” On Sunday, as India made history by winning their first ever World Cup, beating South Africa in the final, it was Shafali who walked away with the Player of the Match award. The youngest to do so at 21 in World Cup history.When Shafali was dropped from the Indian team last year, the news had arrived just days after her father Sanjeev had suffered a heart-attack. As she told this newspaper before, she had hidden the news from her father, who did everything he could to make her a batter that the world fears. In the days that followed after she was dropped, Shafali had spent a few days at her home in Rohtak before heading to the BCCI One-Day Trophy, where she amassed 527 runs at an average of 75.28 at a strike-rate of 152.31. It included a knock of 197 in the quarterfinal against eventual champions Bengal. She didn’t stop there, she tallied 414 runs at an average of 82.80 in the Women’s Challenger Trophy and followed it up with 306 in this year’s Women’s Premier League.While her aggressive game was never in question, her consistency had cost her the place. Sanjeev’s message to his daughter was simple.“She had come home on Diwali between the tournaments and we would talk about how she should not leave her aggressive style of play, which is her strength since her junior days. And in between I also told her, shure ke 2-4 over nikal diye toh puri innings teri (If you stay for 2-4 overs, full innings is yours). And when the call for the World Cup came, I only told her that it was her hard work that has paid off apart from our prayer,” Sanjeev told The Indian Express.Although Shafali wasn’t included even in the reserves, when Pratika Rawal was injured, that the new selection panel looked towards the Haryana batter wasn’t surprising. After all, in the World Cup, India were missing a firepower start at the top — similar to the one that Shafali provided in the final on Sunday at the DY Patil Stadium, where she top-scored with a 78-ball 87 at the top and sharing 104-run stand with Smriti Mandhana to set up a solid foundation.Coach Bajinder Sharma along with Ashwani Kumar at the Shri Ram Narain Cricket Academy at Rohtak, who have seen Shafali’s rise to international cricket from an early age, were watching her make history with the trainees at their academy on Sunday. “The day she came to train under us, she backed her instincts to hit big And as coaches, we have never tried to suppress that. Ball se toh darti hi nahi thi Shafali (Shafali was never scared of the cricket ball).And once we realised that and it took us a day or two, we started making her train with U-16, U-19 boys and Ranji Trophy players too at our academy. We would often give some special training for her defence as in the regular net time, she was all about hitting. She understood that hitting is her strength,” recalls Sharma.While Shafali had started as a wicketkeeper, she has emerged into a spinner who can be depended on to bowl a handful of overs should the need arise. On Sunday, it was Shafali that Harmanpreet Kaur turned to and the 21-year-old responded by taking the key wickets of Sune Luus and Marizanne Kapp that rocked South Africa’s middle-order. “Shafali also used to be a wicket-keeper and it helped her understand the tactics of spin bowlers. When she started bowling in the nets, we made sure that she understood the importance of hitting the good length and also using varying speeds. The first wicket she took today, she had the presence of mind to bowl a bit wide of off-stump and the ball held onto the surface. It’s a redemption for Shafali and what a final to have with a half century and two wickets,” said Sharma.Story continues below this adIn the days she trained at Rohtak, Sharma had also made Shafali to improve on her game against the spinners. With the capability to clear the ropes, she had mostly used the top gear against the spinners. It had also made it easy for the spinners to pin her at one end and Sharma says she made her work on working the deliveries in the gap.“Playing in T20 format always helps her game and it means that she can utilise the mindset in ODI cricket too. So her preparations in recent months were about how to rely on her strengths like the drive. But at the same time, we also focussed on showing restraint when the spinners bowled, where she practiced to pick the gaps,” Sharma added.Nitin Sharma is an Assistant Editor with the sports team of The Indian Express. Based out of Chandigarh, Nitin works with the print sports desk while also breaking news stories for the online sports team. A Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Award recipient for the year 2017 for his story ‘Harmans of Moga’, Nitin has also been a two-time recipient of the UNFPA-supported Laadli Media Awards for Gender Sensitivity for the years 2022 and 2023 respectively. Nitin mainly covers Olympics sports disciplines with his main interests in shooting, boxing, wrestling, athletics and much more. The last 17 years with The Indian Express has seen him unearthing stories across India from as far as Andaman and Nicobar to the North East. Nitin also covers cricket apart from women’s cricket with a keen interest. Nitin has covered events like the 2010 Commonwealth Games, the 2011 ODI World Cup, 2016 T20 World Cup and the 2017 AIBA World Youth Boxing Championships. An alumnus of School of Communication Studies, Panjab University, from where he completed his Masters in Mass Communications degree, Nitin has been an avid quizzer too. A Guru Nanak Dev University Colour holder, Nitin’s interest in quizzing began in the town of Talwara Township, a small town near the Punjab-Himachal Pradesh border. When not reporting, Nitin's interests lie in discovering new treks in the mountains or spending time near the river Beas at his hometown. ... Read MoreStay updated with the latest sports news across Cricket, Football, Chess, and more. Catch all the action with real-time live cricket score updates and in-depth coverage of ongoing matches.© The Indian Express Pvt LtdTags:ICC Women's World CupShafali Verma