With Mithali Raj announcing her retirement from the shortest format of the game earlier this week, new members joining the team was bound to happen. Given the fact that the T20 World Cup is in March next year, India needs to have a stable squad before that and for it to happen they have to try all the permutations and combinations.
Shafali Sharma has received the call from the selection committee to be part of the first three T20Is which will be played against South Africa this month. The 15 years old, has done everything right while playing for Haryana in the Senior National T20 competition. She went all guns blazing against Nagaland when she scored 128 runs in just 56 balls, the third-highest score in women’sT20.
“With the World T20 coming up next year, the idea was to ensure that we have a settled unit and the youngsters like Shafali are bright talents. This is a good opportunity for them,” one of the top BCCI officials, aware of the development, told Sportstar
“There were people who used to discourage my father when I began playing cricket. However, he didn’t listen to them and allowed me to play,” Shafali told to IANS.
“It was my father who trained me in the beginning. It was my dream as well as my father’s that I should play for India at the international stage,” she added with a sense of pride.
“In order to play for India, I needed to perform and score big in the IPL. It was needed from me to help my team win,” said Shafali Verma.
“IPL is a great platform and I was determined enough to perform there and make my way into the Indian dressing room,” she added.
With World Cup lying ahead this is a very nice opportunity for the young ardent Sachin Tendulkar fan to make her spot in the team.
India squad for first 3 T20Is vs South Africa Women in Surat:
Harmanpreet (C), Smriti Mandhana (vc), Jemimah Rodrigues, Deepti Sharma, Taniya Bhatia (wk), Poonam Yadav, Shikha Pandey, Arundhati Reddy, Pooja Vastrakar, Radha Yadav, Veda Krishnamurthy, Harleen Deol, Anuja Patil, Shafali Verma, Mansi Joshi
To know the ODI Squad, click here
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