It’s been a rollercoaster ride for Shafali Verma in the last few months, but the explosive Indian batter is back to doing what she does best, taking apart the opposition bowlers right at the start of the innings. Verma’s quick-fire 43 from 18 balls helped the Delhi Capitals start their Women’s Premier League (WPL) 2025 with a heist against Mumbai Indians.
Post the game against Mumbai Indians, Shafali Verma shared her thoughts about the match, her innings, getting through a rough patch and more.
“There was a lot of excitement for the WPL to start and we had our first game today and what a game it was! There was a lot of up and down moments throughout,” she shared.
Late in 2024, in November, ahead of India’s three-match ODI series against Australia, Verma was dropped from the national side. Prior to that Verma had a poor outing in India’s group stage exit at the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2024, finishing with 97 runs from four innings at an average of 24. She’s had a lean patch in the Women ODIs as well, with her last ODI half-century coming back in March 2022 against South Africa, a lean run in the white ball formats had seen Verma sidelined from the selection discussions.
Verma went back to the basics, went to domestic cricket and ended up as the highest scorer in the Senior Women’s One Day Trophy 2024, finishing with 527 runs from 7 games with an incredible average of 75.29! Her standout performance came against Bengal, where she hammered 197 runs off just 115 balls, albeit in a losing cause. Despite her remarkable domestic campaign, she couldn’t make her way back into the team, as Pratika Rawal retained her spot, courtesy to her 444 runs from 6 outings.
She kept grinding it out in the domestic circuit and is looking to convert that form into the WPL 2025. Talking about her blistering 43 from 18 balls, Verma spoke about being able to execute her plans and being satisfied with the start.
“Of course, if I got 50 it would be different, but I could play and execute the shots I wanted to and really happy about that.”
The Delhi Capitals are led by the veteran former Australian skipper Meg Lanning and have some experienced international stars like Jess Jonassen, Marizanne Kapp, Laura Harris and Shikha Pandey amongst others. Verma also discussed how it is batting alongside Lanning and how it helps her game.
“Playing with Meg, it’s always fun, especially how she’s telling me something every ball, (I think) that’s a different kind of motivation to have someone talking to you after every ball.”
Verma acknowledged the tough period she’s gone through in the last couple of months, where her father also suffered a stroke, and said that the result of the hard work and practice was shown on the field against the Mumbai Indians. The attacking opening batter credited her father and brother supporting and backing her in her low period.
“When I was dropped from the ODI team (in November 2024), he (my father) got a heart attack like two days before that, that was a very sad moment in my life. Family is first for me.”
Verma signed off by saying how staying with her family was important to her, getting through that rough period and dedicating her knock against Mumbai Indians to her family.
“I want to dedicate this knock to my brother and father, because my brother is someone who is throwing down for me and my father, (who is all on the) video call and telling me how to hit this shot and that shot”.
(Quotes sourced from video posted by WPLT20 on Instagram)
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