'Shifu' Shafali Verma masters art of mixing consistency and aggression

CHENNAI: A year ago, around the same time, India made a bold call to leave out Shafali Verma and instead pair 25-year-old Pratika Rawal with Smriti Mandhana at the top. The criticism was fair, as the young opening batter always struggled to pair consistency with aggression.

Her cameos no longer warranted a place, and it required a bit of reworking and domestic grind. A few weeks later, returning to the same squad where she was dropped, Shafali’s all-round display led India to a famous World Cup win against South Africa.

Less than a year later, she’s at the peak of her powers, living up to all the hype and promises. The 22-year-old is the most improved player in the Indian setup, with the bat and ball.

Since August, the Rohtak-born has scores of 64, 28, 12, 64, 68, 40*, 100* and 48, scoring at least 40 in six of the eight games. She’s no longer a cameo merchant, but her prolonged aggression has become a blockbuster hit in Indian colours, with 863 T20I runs in 2026 – the most for any batter.

The stand-out aspect of her batting has been her delivery in big games, scoring fifty (ODI) in the World Cup final (vs SA), fifty in the Asia Cup semis (vs BAN), final (vs SL), a century in the Asian Games semis (vs BAN) and topping it with a 48 against SL in the final.

But the more astonishing part is how she’s done all of this while developing her bowling to go from a part-time option to becoming an X-factor bowler in the Indian blue. In slow and dry conditions here in Japan, her bowling has made as much of an impact as her bat, with four wickets, conceding just 16 runs.

"We play to ensure that our flag flies high. There is no bigger feeling than this," Verma said after the triumph. Seven years after her debut, ‘Shifu’ Verma has finally mastered the art of mixing consistency and aggression.