Over the top 50 times a day, coach on Shafali’s schedule

Verma’s explosive batting has powered India to their maiden final in Twenty20 cricket’s biggest tournament despite the prolonged run droughts of fellow opener Smriti Mandhana and skipper Harmanpreet Kaur.

The 16-year-old has scored at a strike rate of 161 - the highest by any frontline batswoman in the competition - and her nine sixes are also the most by anyone in this year’s tournament. She has shown a particular penchant to charge out and hit bowlers over their head, a shot she honed under coach Ashwani Kumar’s watchful eyes at the Shree Ram Narain Cricket Academy in Rohtak.

“We made her play every shot, including that, at least 50-times-a-day,” Kumar said by telephone fromHaryana.

“This is how you build muscle memory. Obviously, she was a natural striker of the ball. We didn’t overhaul her style, we just polished it.”

Verma is currently the top ranked Twenty20 batswoman, a remarkable rise for the daughter of a goldsmith who had to cut her hair and masquerade as a boy to get enough practice early in her career.

“She was barely 12 when she enrolled but within months she started striking the ball so hard that we started fearing for the safety of other girls in that group,” Kumar said. “So we put her in the senior group and she then started practising with the boys.”

Kumar’s academy has produced quite a few first class cricketers and he got some of them to bowl against Verma.

According to England opener Danni Wyatt, mind games are Australia’s best shot at stopping Shafali Verma on Sunday. Wyatt, who shared the dressing-room with the Haryana star at the 2019 Women’s T20 Challenge, has a unique insight into a batter who commands the world’s attention.

Wyatt suggests it’s the top two inches rather than the 22 yards that holds the key to stopping her.