Big hitter India’s wonder teen gets ready for England
Shafali Verma, 16, had to pretend to be a boy before being accepted and breaking 30-year Tendulkar record
‘I cut her hair, took her to one of the academies and got her enrolled there as a boy’ ‘I took up this game because of Sachin sir. My whole family literally worshipped him’
‘Game”, as they say in the NBA, “recognises game”. Virender Sehwag, India’s explosive opening batsman and a world champion in both white-ball formats, acknowledged similar trailblazing talent by anointing Shafali Verma a “rock star” last week. That designation has become the pinnacle of praise in Indian cricket since Shane Warne imported it during the early days of the Indian Premier League, but never before has it been lavished on one so young. Verma, who will open the batting against England in tomorrow’s Women’s T20 World Cup semi-final, turned 16 only in January.
The right-hander made her debut last autumn at the age of 15 years and 283 days and, by November, had broken Sachin Tendulkar’s 30-year record as India’s youngest player to score a half-century when she hit 73 and put on 143 for the first wicket with Smriti Mandhana against West Indies, India women’s highest T20 partnership. At the World Cup, she has made 161 runs in India’s four victorious group games, clobbering a tournament-high nine sixes, won two player-of-the-match awards and averages 40.25 at a strike rate of 161, also the best in the competition for any batter who has played more than one innings.
Yet Verma’s youth is one of the least exceptional things about her. In a women’s game expanding at exponential pace in novel territories, 16 pre-teens – five 11-year-olds and 11 12-year-olds – have made senior international debuts in the past year.
Her success in surmounting numerous obstacles so quickly to establish herself is far more extraordinary than her date of birth.
Verma comes from Rohtak in the northern state of Haryana, which produced the great all-rounder Kapil Dev and a trio of millionaire IPL spinners:
Yuzvendra Chahal, Jayant Yadav and Amit Mishra.
Culturally, the state values tradition and an orthodox, conservative Hindu stance on gender inequality. When Verma was nine and inspired by her father’s love of the game in general, and Tendulkar in particular, to take up cricket, there was not a single girls’ club for her to join in her hometown.
Her father, Sanjeev, instead turned to the myriad boys’ set-ups in Rohtak. “I literally begged them to give her a chance, but in vain,” he told The Times of India. “All I got was rejection. I decided to cut her hair, and took her to one of the academies and got her enrolled there as a boy.” Although she ultimately flourished under instruction, she struggled initially facing pace bowling, but was resolute, despite being struck several times on the helmet. On one occasion, she impersonated her brother, who had fallen ill on the eve of an under-12 tournament, and won the “man”-ofthe-series award. Her enthusiasm for the game encouraged her school finally to establish a girls’ team and, while she continued to train with the boys at the academy, taking on the under-19 bowlers in the nets, she no longer had to compete only against them.
It has been arduous, but has given her a priceless education. “They never treated me with kid gloves,” she said. “And I always tried to give it back to them. Guess that’s how I developed my hard-hitting batting style.” Criticism from neighbours and relatives, who insulted her father for letting a girl play the game, and months of financial hardship after Sanjeev was diddled out of his savings by a con man, did not sabotage her progress. She made it into the state side at 14, smashed a buccaneering 128 off 56 balls in one match, and was drafted in the IPL Velocity squad for the
2019 Women’s T20 Challenge.
Overcoming a duck on her international debut, Verma’s record-breaking streak earned her a central contract and the opening slot in India’s attempt to win their first Women’s T20 World Cup. Throughout the group stage, she has demonstrated her singular power. Ostensibly batting with a dominant bottom hand, nonetheless her timing allows her to carve the ball through the covers or flog it straight either side of the bowler.
In 2013, she had been present at Tendulkar’s final first-class game for Mumbai and she met her hero for the first time in Melbourne last month. “The reason I took up this game was because of Sachin sir,” she wrote. “My whole family has not just idolised him, but literally worshipped him.”
The Everest of the great man’s achievements will remain unscaled by anyone, but it did take him 21 years to win his first global tournament. The way Verma is batting, she could do it in six months.