The highly-tip-toed and shoed-up Indian team is all set to counter the English army on and from June 16 for a one-off Test, three ODIs and T20s each. Ahead of the tour, the all-new-and-fresh absolute sensation of Indian cricket, the young 17-year old and out-stricken Shafali Verma recalled the previous head coach, WV Raman, who provided the guts and the encouragement to go down the line on the ground and face the hit and torque.
She also spoke about the valour and support being imparted to her from some experienced senior cricketers like Smriti Mandhana along with some from the Haryana Men’s Ranji Team. She claimed the importance of fitness that she gained with the learning experience on watching IPL.“I watched the IPL as well. One gets to learn a lot observing and watching the IPL players, their shot selection, especially,” said Verma, compounding on her stance towards being fit.
Shafali Verma also stated, “I want to remain fit. That’s my primary goal, because if I’m fit, I can carve out a long career for myself. And to simulate skiddy conditions [overseas], I have been training with wet synthetic balls, to allow them to skid more.” Moreover, all through the time, Shafali has been most keenly following the Indian Premier League on TV and has aspired herself by tons observing the world-class experience and senior batsmen, especially their intellect selection of shots.
A six-hitting specialist and the blatant hitter of the T20 format as she is, Shafali Verma in an interview to ESPN CricInfo, confidently shared that she has always been put forward, backed and supported by her colleagues and other pal-cum-staff to play her natural attacking game. She stressed the fact that behind her good-to-go and lavishing attitude towards the bowlers is the previous mentor and her supporting colleagues.
“I worked with Raman for two years. He would back me to the hilt to bat the way I bat. ‘Ball dekho, apnaa game khelo,’ he would say. He motivated me since my debut. Whether or not I did something correctly or did it well, he would encourage me. I will miss him and I want to thank him. It was great playing under him,” quoted Shafali.
Shafali Verma went on to explain how she is being immensely encouraged by all her teammates, the coaches and the support staffs to play in her ever-smashing fierce natural style of batting. She also shared that whenever at instances when she didn’t play a shot well, Mandhana used to point out the short-coming in the strike and advised in all means how she Shafali could have approached and timed the ball better towards the boundary through specified gaps between the fielders.
Shafali Verma goes on well to partner with Smriti as they usually count on each other’s batting, the approaches and all, along with some sound feedbacks being transferred across both of them.
